Exia Displaced
by AnubisGundam0
Summary: As the battle between Setsuna and Ribbons concludes on the moon's surface during the final clash, Exia quantizes and vanishes from the "OO" universe and materializes in the "Seed" universe. Caught in the middle of a war between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT can Setsuna find a way back, or is he stranded for good? (Inspired by "Lancelotquanta's" story "Its Name is Gundam")
1. Displacement - Phase 1-2

**Chapter 1: Prologue/Phase 1-2 Displacement**

* * *

 **\- Prologue Start -**

After the Exia and the O Gundam crashed into the moon's surface the two units righted themselves and prepared for the final confrontation readying their respective weapons, the O Gundam drew one of its two beam sabers from its backpack with its shield held in its left hand at the ready, while Exia's GN Sword Kai flipped into place held in a fencer's stance.

Despite been a first generation unit the O Gundam in preparation as a backup unit had been upgraded with fourth generation tech, the Exia been a third generation unit had received similar yet less extensive modifications. In essence the two units were on almost equal standing.

Taking this into consideration, Setsuna activated GN Drive burst mode releasing the limiter on the GN Drive, after a moment's pause the two gundams charged, aiming for each other's cockpits for quick decisive victory thrusting their blades, the O Gundam's beam saber hit high plunging into the GN Condenser in Exia's chest and piercing the GN Drive behind it, Setsuna's physical blade sliced through the cockpit and into the GN drive behind it, killing Ribbons in the process.

With the destruction of the GN drives all the GN particles stored inside them and the Exia's condensers flooded out through the breach in the torso and engulfing the Exia in an orange glow before vanishing.

 **\- Prologue End -**

* * *

 **\- Quantum Mechanics Can Do Anything: Phase 1 -**

 **(This chapter covers events during ep1 of Gundam Seed)**

The cockpit interior was pitch black when Setsuna woke, he tried to bring his systems online but there was no response the panel was dead; in fact all of Exia's systems were unresponsive. With the fate of the battle unknown he couldn't sit around and wait to be picked up, first he needed to determine his location, then he needed to assess the damage to Exia and lastly establish contact with Ptolemy.

After manually opening Exia's cockpit hatch Setsuna assessed his surroundings, he appeared to be inside some kind of facility, with low gravity often found at a colony's dock or factory block. For all its size it was possible he was back on the Innovade's mother ship 'Celestial Being'. _'Was Exia moved while I was unconscious?'_ He wondered, seeing that for the moment he appeared to be in the clear he went about assessing the damage to Exia.

Exia was in bad shape, Ribbons beam saber had pierced the GN Condenser mounted in its chest and may have damage the GN Drive, there was no way he could repair this in field, it would have to wait until he could recover it, all that left was to contact Ptolemy. Suddenly an explosion rocked the facility, _'The battle is still being waged? But Ribbons was defeated... unless the Earth Federation is mopping up.'_ Indeed Celestial Being's truce with the Earth Federation was a tenuous one to begin with; he wouldn't be surprised if they and Karathron were fighting each other for possession of the Innovade's Colony Ship.

For the moment there was nothing to be done about Exia, as much as he hated leaving it behind, it could be retrieved or destroyed later. Right now he had to get off the Colony Ship and return to Ptolemy before he was captured with that decided he set out into the facility.

* * *

Cautiously making his way through the facility the sound of battle grew, moving towards it with the intention of joining up with Karathron whom Celestial Being had better relations with before returning to Ptolemy, first he had to find out where his position was relative to theirs and only Karathron could supply that information.

Instead of gliding down the hallways Setsuna was jogging, the result of increasing gravity told him that he was moving deeper into the colony ship's internal structure and further away from Ptolemy.

 _'Not good, at this rate I'll be stranded._ ' Sudden movement interrupted his musing and he trained his pistol on it.

"Woh! Wait! Don't shoot!" A panicky voiced called out.

Setsuna paused for half second before demanding, "Come out with your hands up. Slowly."

From out of a side corridor a young man came out hands raised, oddly he was only wearing casual wear with no survival suit. _'A civilian? What's he doing here?'_ Setsuna then recalled the Gundam type mobile suit Ribbons deployed, _'he must of being brought here to help construct it.'_ He deduced, and lowered his pistol. "It's dangerous here, you should find shelter."

"Yeah. Your right." He responded then turned to leave.

"Wait!" Setsuna called the man turned to him bewildered. "You can't go that way, there's fighting in that direction. It's safer that way." Pointing in the direction he'd just come from.

"Ah? Right. Thanks." The young man ran past him and disappeared into the corridor.

With that Setsuna proceeded down the corridor towards the fighting which opened up into a hangar of some sort, upon entering the hangar he came across a gun battle between what appeared to civilian workers and Infantry in astrosuits battling for possession of two mobile suits, perhaps gundam types.

There was only one problem, he didn't recognize the infantry's affiliation. Their suits didn't match that of Karathron, Earth Sphere Federation, A-law or Innovade's. Regardless this was clearly a one sided battle and he had to act fast, one of those units could be his ticket out of this fire-fight and back to Ptolemy. Movement on his left caught his eye and he spied an soldier attempting to flank the workers using the catwalk, Setsuna opened fire. Catching the soldier unaware he dropped like a rock.

Hearing gunfire behind them two workers, a man and woman turned to see what was happening the moment's inattention proved fatal for the man as one of the few Infantry remaining scored a hit. The woman called out to the fallen college before diving to another spot of cover in order to get a clear shot and return the favor, with that the assault force sent to take the hangar had been defeated and everything went quiet, the woman turned to Setsuna and called out to him.

* * *

Now in the clear Lieutenant Murrue Ramius took a moment to assess the only other person in the hangar, he stood on the upper catwalk overlooking her position and armed with an oddly designed pistol held at the ready. She approved. Looking over his blue suit she noted that it didn't match ZAFT's design and it was too compact to be an astrosuit, _'a pilot's suit? That means...!'_

"Hey you!" She called, "you're one of the pilots from the Marseille right?"

After a moment's pause he nodded an affirmative.

Murrue frowned, "there's supposed to be five of you. Where are the others?" He shook his head, he didn't know. _'He must have gotten separated during the attack.'_ She concluded, "Alright, come down here and help me secure these units." With a nod he vaulted over the guard rail, as he was doing so a burst of gunfire sounded and pain exploded in her shoulder, _'dammit, there was still one left.'_ She realized as she collapsed from the impact.

For a brief moment in what felt like an eternity her senses dulled under a haze of pain barely registering the sound of movement and gunfire as her senses recovered from the shock to her system. When she came to she found the pilot struggling with her attacker, a ZAFT Red, their red pilot suit an indication that they qualified top of their class in training and were considered to be ZAFT's elite pilots.

With her arm wounded she raised her pistol one handed but the unknown pilot was obscuring her line of fire. "Get Clear!" She warned, the two separated and she opened fire, but the ZAFT pilot with assistance from his propulsion pack, nimbly evaded her shots and disappeared behind the Strike's trailer out of sight.

Holding her wounded arm she called out to her only ally, "come on, hurry!" Before lowering herself into the Strike's cockpit, when he joined her, she closed the hatch, the last thing they needed from their friend outside was a parting gift courtesy of a grenade. She turned to the pilot, "move behind the seat while I move the suit." He followed her instructions.

She was thankful that he didn't argue with her, he may have been trained to pilot one of these units but Murrue had no doubt that the ZAFT Pilot was making his way towards the Aegis and if he got his unit on its feet before theirs, then they were in trouble. She'll hand over control once they had some breathing room.

The hangar began to shudder, "secondary explosions?" She wondered out loud, _'no time to waste then.'_ With that she powered up the Strike which was still held in by the trailer's restraints, fortunately the Strike was able to force its way free under its own power, not a moment too soon as she raised it to its feet just as the explosions reached the hangar.

* * *

 **\- Alternate History Phase 2 -**

The Strike jetted out of the hangar followed closely by the Aegis as the explosion erupted throughout the facility exiting into the interior of the colony only to be greeted by a ZAFT GINN, soon after their appearance it trained its rifle on them, Murrue responded to the attack by activating one of the Strike's features.

[Phase Shift Armor Active]

Murrue tried to put some distance between them but the Strike could only stumble about as it clumsily evaded the GINN's gunfire, even so a few hits landed and the Strike was knocked around. There was a pause in the gunfire and when she was able to train the main camera back on him she saw that the GINN had switched out its rifle for its sword before re-engaging them at close quarters, the Aegis thankfully didn't join the assault.

Raising the Strike's arms defensively over its head, it shuddered under the impact but otherwise deflected the sword blow with ease, the GINN paused to reassess their defenses, at that moment two missile trucks appeared and fired a salvo of missiles towards them, the Aegis after activating its own PS Armor shot them down with its head mounted CIWS (Close In Weapons System) before turning them on the vehicles themselves shredding them to pieces.

After finishing what she concluded to be issuing instructions the Aegis took off and the GINN resumed its attack, Murrue attempted to repel him with the Strike's own head mounted CIWS but the shots veered off target and the GINN took flight. _'Damn! The sights are off!'_ No surprise seeing as they hadn't gotten around to calibrating them, the GINN dive bombed them and when it came within range it delivered a heavy blow with its sword.

The Strike stumbled and collided with a nearby building a jolt of pain from her wounded arm caused by the impact, the GINN landed designed for zero gravity it could only stay airborne for brief periods, it then re-engaged its thrusters propelling it forward sword thrust at out before it aiming for the cockpit. _'This is bad,'_ she realized while the armor would withstand the attack the impact would knock the Strike onto its back and just like in a human fight it was worst position to fight from. She needed to counter him but couldn't think of how.

As the enemy closed the distance the pilot next to her reached out and manipulated the console sending the Strike into a crouch, the sword went high grazing the Strike's collar, he then reached across her and grabbed the joystick before delivering a powerful right hook to the GINN knocking it on its ass. Murrue was bewildered when he turned to her and said.

"Move aside," it was the first thing he said to her in the short time she'd known him.

"Uh, right." She agreed moving behind the seat.

Taking the controls he focused on the enemy as it made another charge, firing a burst from the CIWS the rounds hit their mark forcing the GINN to break off its attack dropping its sword. _'He's compensating for the misaligned sights,' She_ realized. After putting a short distance between them, the GINN leveled its rifle at them and fired, utilizing its thrusters the Strike evaded, after a moments search of the weapons panel the pilot deployed the units combat knives. But rather than close the distance and lunge against the opponent he did the unexpected, he hurled one of the knives at the GINN embedding it into the targets rifle barrel just as it fired, the barrel exploded and the second knife was hurled at the GINN's mono-eye destroying its optics.

The Strike surged forward as the blinded GINN fired wildly relying on its backup optics to aim, scooping up the abandoned heavy GINN sword, as it was peppered with rounds the Strike swung the sword destroying the GINN's rifle as well as severing its right arm holding it near the elbow, it then followed up with a second slash by shifting its grip on the blade bringing it into an upward swing under the left arm shearing it off at the shoulder joint, then bringing it around in a circular motion to take out the GINN's legs in a final third strike.

Murrue was stunned at how easy he made it look, that was when the GINN's cockpit hatch blew off and the pilot jettisoned via his pilot suit's propulsion pack.

"Get away from the GINN!" She warned, just before it exploded. Unbalanced by the heavy GINN sword the blast wave knocked the Strike to the ground, Murrue landed on her injured arm, the explosion of pain causing her to pass out as the world faded into a red haze.

* * *

When Setsuna awoke he gritted his teeth to suppress a groan, the explosion had done a number on him knocking him out for brief period of time (he wasn't sure how long). Recalling the mobile suit's other occupant he turned to check on her, she had collapsed against one of the side monitors and appeared to be unconscious. Checking his monitors for hostiles seeing as the area was clear he turned back to the woman and checked her pulse to see if she was still alive, confirming that she was just unconscious he secured her behind the seat before turning to his console.

Setsuna noted that the units power cell was starting to run low, he had noticed at the beginning of the battle that power consumption had increase when the woman activated the active defense system and would spike when the unit took fire, opting to conserve power he deactivated the system.

[PS Armor Inactive]

Continuing to examine the panel he noted that there weren't any instruments indicating hydrogen fuel, particle compression/supply or fossil based. The suit was purely electric but unlike the AEU's Enact or the Union's Flag mobile suit it didn't receive power wirelessly via radio, instead drawing power from an internal battery, though the panel implied that it could draw power from an secondary input, probably an external power supply of some sort.

But the Innovades, A-Laws and ESF (Earth Sphere Federation) used GN based technology. Only Karathron uses other types. Which posed a question; what was a purely electric Gundam Type Mobile Suit doing inside the Innovade Mother ship? Was it even a Gundam Type at all? Setsuna recalled what came up on the monitor when the woman started it up.

[ **G** eneral

 **U** nilateral

 **N** euro-link

 **D** ispersive

 **A** utonomic

 **M** aneuver synthesis system]

To Setsuna it sounded like a bad joke, the Exia was so graceful it practically danced through the battlefield, this thing had the grace of an ambling drunkard. Something was very wrong here, this place, the civilians, the engineers, the soldiers, the mobile suits, nothing was making any sense.

Movement on one of the monitors caught his attention, zooming in he discovered it was the civilians he'd seen earlier during the battle. They'd practically been under the suits feet during the fight and would've been crushed if the battle had continued as had been, that's why he had intervened and taken control of the suit. Whatever was going on here he needed answers and his gut told him that these civilians would be far more accommodating than the woman lying unconscious behind the seat.

He opened the hatch, the front monitor and console retracting and climbed out on top of the suit still lying flat on its back from the fall.

"Hey, over there!" He called out, "my... college is injured, can you give me a hand?"

The group shared a nervous glance before rushing over. _'Their either brave or good natured,'_ he thought before adding, _'…or they're not too bright.'_ Either way he had to give them credit considering what happened recently. As the group approached he saw that they consisted of three young men and a young woman.

One with colored glasses called up to him, "someone's hurt?"

Setsuna nodded, "she's unconscious, and we'll have to lift her out of the cockpit then bring her down."

Another guy turned to the girl, "Miriallia. Me and Sai will help lift her out of the cockpit, You and Kuzzey wait down here and we'll lower her to you."

"Right," she agreed before cautioning him, "be careful Tolle." With that Sai and Tolle scaled the suits arm in order to reach the torso where Setsuna waited.

"Man she's stacked." Tolle commented.

"This isn't the time." Sai reproached him and Setsuna agreed, between the three of them they managed to lift her out of the cockpit and lower her to the others waiting below.

"Let's move her to the bench over there." Directing them to a sheltered waiting area, this reminded Setsuna of a bus stop.

"Alright, while you four move her I'll get this suit back on its feet." The four shared a nervous glance. "It's just a precaution, I'll join you shortly." He had questions that needed answers.

When they got clear he dropped back into the cockpit and started it up, not bothering to close the hatch he got it standing before moving it closer to the others at a slow walk and lowering it into a kneeling position before shutting it down. Disembarking the mobile suit he found the four tending to the woman's wound but there was little they could do other than a makeshift bandage and a search of the suits emergency supply compartment showed that it had yet to be stocked. All they could do now was wait.

Setsuna approached one of them, "excuse me, but can you tell me where I am exactly?"

All of them blinked in surprise, "where you are?" Kuzzey reiterated.

"Yes, my... ship lost power in transit and I fear that may have drifted off course." He lied.

Tolle and Sai glance at each other, "he must have been heading for Artemis, it would explain what a soldier is doing here," Tolle assumed, "in that case you're not far off."

"Right now you're on Orb's colony Heliopolis," Sai continued, "like Artemis we too are based at the L3 point, so transferring to there shouldn't take long."

Setsuna thanked them and took a seat in the waiting station to ponder this new information while the three boys wandered over to the mobile suit. He had confirmed his worst fears, Lagrange 3 was located on the other side of the Earth opposite the Moon where he had recently been fighting, then there was this colony 'Heliopolis' as well as 'Artemis'. He knew that Celestial Being had a resource satellite which had being destroyed by A-laws and the abandoned Krung Thep colony that Ian told him about once but no others had being built at that location, which for Setsuna was even more was alarming. For one there was no way Exia could of covered all that distance in its damaged state that it was in, in such a short period of time. Second: how on earth did he wind up inside the colony, the fact that he had been alone implied he hadn't been towed in as salvage. Third: he didn't recognize any of the enemy uniforms or the mobile suit that engaged him, something was very wrong and Setsuna didn't like the answer that the evidence was pointing to.

His musing were interrupted when the woman stirred, "your awake." Miriallia noticed.

"Uhh..." She groaned as she tried to clear the haze from her head, before asking "how long was I out?"

"Not long," he answered, that was when she caught sight of the other three around the mobile suit.

"Step away from that suit!" She commanded before drawing her sidearm and firing a warning shot, or at least he thought it was either that or... she has really bad aim.

"Over there," she ordered gesturing with gun before glancing at Miriallia, "you too." She watched as the girl slowly made her way over to the others before clinging to the one called Tolle, Setsuna found this to be completely unnecessary.

"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius of the Atlantic Federation," she announced, now Setsuna had a name to put to the face. "Now, your names?"

The four of them glanced nervously at each other caught completely off guard her aggressive stance; slowly one by one they volunteered their names. She then informed them that because they witnessed the Federation's newest classified weapon they would be detained until she received orders from HQ, naturally they objected.

"You can't do that! This colony belongs to Orb." Tolle challenged her.

"He's correct the Federation has no authority here, you can't give us orders."Sai supported.

"Besides were neutral we're not a part of the war." Kuzzey joined in.

Setsuna wasn't so sure, the fact that Murrue and her group, along with the mobile suit kneeling a few feet from them implied that they at least had some considerable influence here.

Murrue silenced them by firing into the air, " _enough!_ Do you really think that being neutral exempts you from the war? The fact is that it doesn't, you have witnessed a military secret and to protect that information I cannot let you go."

Setsuna could understand where she was coming from, he had a similar talk with Saji Crossroad regardless he had had enough of this, he wasn't going to help her detain them nor could he afford to be responsible for them, the sooner they left the better. Walking up alongside Murrue he placed his hand on her arm holding the pistol surprising her, "there's no point," he said.

"What are you-" she was about to ask before he cut her off.

"The unit captured by the enemy has already left," he pointed out. "Most likely they have already secured it, besides these four haven't learned anything that they can't figure out from the captured unit."

She sighed, "your right, the fact that they're here at all proves that we've been compromised since before now." lowering her pistol she turned the four she was going to detain, "alright, you're free to go."

The four didn't hesitate to bolt though the girl shouted a quick thank you over her shoulder to him. Seeing this Murrue grumbled, "why do I have to be the bad guy," kicking a nearby pebble away.

"So what's our next move?" He asked, while he had nothing to do with her war the fact was he was stuck in the middle of it and no idea how to get out of it, especially if things were what he thought it was.

"We should try to contact the Archangel, but with the N-jammers interference we won't be able to reach them," she informed him. "Back in factory there is trailer loaded with additional weapons systems for the Strike; we can use its auxiliary power pack to boast the signal."

"We should retrieve it..." She paused frowning; Setsuna wondered if his cover was blown. "I didn't get your name?" He considered how best to respond.

"Lieutenant Setsuna F. Seiei." He introduced himself; his choice of rank was based on fact that the only mobile suit pilots he'd met face to face were Lieutenants. Murrue went to salute and reintroduce herself but Setsuna was already making his way to Strike leaving behind a bewildered Murrue.

When he reached the cockpit he turned back to her and called, "are you coming?"

Startled she stammered. "Ah...right, I'm coming." Before muttering, "I guess he's not the type to stand on decorum." Because of her injured shoulder she couldn't scale the Strike to reach the cockpit so Setsuna had her climb into the Strike's hand and raised her to the hatch where she secured herself behind the seat. Turning back towards the way they came he found the GINN sword where it had fallen after the explosion and retrieved it.

"Good idea," Murrue approved, Setsuna queried her with a look. "The Archangel is located in a dock within the factory if the enemy hit them at same time hit us, they may still have a presence within factory and until we find the trailer we've few weapons to defend ourselves with." She explained.

With sword in hand they proceeded into the ruined factory.

* * *

Murrue winced as she was jostled within the cockpit aggravating her shoulder wound; it was a constant problem as they made their way deeper into the factory especially when they had to clear away debris. Unfortunately there was nothing either of them could do about it, so she just grit her teeth and endured.

It hadn't been easy moving through the ruined factory, the combination of scattered debris and the Strike's poor handling made the ride rather uncomfortable, especially for Murrue who unlike Setsuna didn't have the benefit of seat and had to hang on for dear life with her good arm. At one point the ground shifted and Murrue lost hold of her makeshift handrail and toppled onto Setsuna, which had the unintended side effect of steering the Strike into the nearby wall.

Needless to say Setsuna found it infinitely easier to drive if Murrue stayed on her side of the cockpit.

They had yet to encounter a single enemy within and from the looks of it they may have already withdrawn. She glanced at the pilot next to her who had introduced himself as Setsuna and a Lieutenant for that matter. He hadn't said one word to her since they entered the factory other than to ask for directions, still something in the back of her mind bothered her about him but right now there were more important things. She attempted to contact the Archangel using the Strike's radio despite what she had said earlier, it was better than doing nothing and the pilot had no objections.

Eventually they found what they were looking for; the trailer containing the Launcher Striker Pack, they couldn't mount the equipment in here due to the low ceiling; they would have to get out into the open first. Climbing out of the cockpit and onto the Strike's hand before being lowered to the ground, she climbed into the trailer's cabin and started the engine and the pair left the factory. A few times she had to let Setsuna go in front in order to clear a path for her so that the trailer could traverse and even then it was a rough ride that didn't do her shoulder any favors.

When they exited the factory Murrue positioned the trailer behind the Strike then exiting the cabin she entered the back of the trailer and started up the control panel for the crane in preparation to mount the equipment onto the Strike. That's when an explosion rang out from the colony shaft and a mobile suit pursued by a mobile armor exited the dust cloud.

"One of ours, and a CGUE…? It's the enemy commander?!" She realized as it flew by, "Hurry! We have to mount the equipment." Turning back to the control panel she quickly loaded the equipment onto the Strike while the mobile armor distracted the enemy, once docked the Strike engaged its PS Armor and turned to face the enemy which in the meantime disabled there only ally.

That was when the artificial mountain used to disguise the factory block's wall exploded sending debris everywhere, out of the enormous dust cloud a ship emerged. Murrue recognized it, "The Archangel!"

* * *

 **\- End of Chapter Theatre -**

* * *

 **Part 1 Script**

 **Ribbons: *** Reading from his script*I have to reenact my death scene?

 **Author: *** Deadpans* Yes.

 **Ribbons: *** Disbelief* But that's all it says on the script!

 **Author:** It can't be helped.

 **Setsuna: *** Turns to the Author* I am killing him at the end of this scene, right?

 **Author:** Yes Setsuna.

 **Ribbons: *** Horrified*

 **Setsuna: *** Starts sharpening his sword*

 **Part 2 Bad Directions**

 **Kira: *** Had a close brush with death* Hi, I'm Kira. Thank you for not shooting me.

 **Setsuna: *** Shakes his hand* Setsuna, you got lucky.

 **Kira:** *Sweet drops*

 **Setsuna: *** points down the corridor* You'll be safe if you go that way.

 _Sometime later._

 **Kira: *** Lost* I'm so freaking lost.

 **Part 3 Unhelpful help**

 **Tolle: *** Eyes wide* their huge!

 **Sai: *** Struggles* Heavy...

 **Tolle: *** Stares* No kidding have you seen the size of them!?

 **Sai: *** Still struggling to lift Murrue* Will you stop staring! And help. Me. Lift. Her!

 **Miriallia: *** Signs* You do realized I'm standing right here, right?

 **Part 4 User Unfriendly**

 **Murrue: *** Enthusiastic* Setsuna! Get ready, we're going into battle.

 **Setsuna: *** Staring at numerous buttons* How do you turn off the safety?

 **Murrue:**!?

 **Murrue: *** Disbelief* Tell me your joking.

 **Setsuna: *** Deadpans* I'm joking.

 **Murrue:**...!

 **Murrue: *** Prays* Lord help us.

 **The Author:** *Appears with an instruction manual* You called?

 **Murrue: *** In complete shock* How are you even here!?

 **Setsuna:** Speak of the Devil, and he will appear.

 **Murrue: *** Faints*

 **Setsuna and the Author:**...?

* * *

 **\- Chapter 1 End -**

* * *

 **Author Note:**

This is something I've being working on since before 'Nightmare of the Void' before benching it in favor of the other. Due to recent inactivity due to writers block, I've decided to put this out for the time being.

Input is welcome, also let me know what you think of the 'End of Chapter Theater' it's partly inspired by the comical shorts that appear at the end of a number Gundam manage volume and part silly ideas that wouldn't leave me alone as I was writing this.

I might put out a few more chapters for this until I can get back into my other story.

For those concerned about Kira's removal from the story, worry not I haven't rendered him obsolete. He'll reappear periodically throughout the story particularly where Orb's involvement is concerned. While his role is currently minor it would gradually increase as the story progresses.


	2. Armed and Dangerous - Phase 3-4

**\- Armed and Dangerous: Phase 3 -**

* * *

 _'Things are getting out of hand, and the mission had started off well enough.'_ Rau Le Creuset reflected recalling how the mission began as he flew through the colony shaft while been pursued by La Flaga's Mobile Armor. The Alliance warship – an old hulk destined for the scrap-yard – had dismissed their presence without a thought when they were detected earlier and the assault team's insertion into the colony had gone off without a hitch, the mobile suit team lead by Miguel Aiman had blown past the colony's merger defenses consisting of Mistrals, two of the GINNs including Aiman's entered the colony to support the inflitration team, the third remained outside to engage the Alliance's few mobile armors.

Not long after, one of the GINNs returned escorting three of the captured prototypes, things however went downhill from there when Athrun returned in the forth and reported that Rusty had been killed and Miguel had stayed behind to capture the fifth. Not long after they received an emergency signal from Miguel, having failed to capture the prototype and his GINN destroyed, then the GINN occupying the Alliance forces took damage from a mobile armor using wire controlled gun pods.

With a grimace Le Creuset recalled the GINN back to the ship and ordered that his CGUE be readied for sortie, first he de-clawed the Hawk of Endymion, before going after the remaining prototype.

After a delightful game of hide-and-seek in the colony's docks with his old nemesis followed by a quick chase through the colony shaft, Le Creuset decided to get back to the task at hand, destroying the one remaining gun pod, he broke through the shaft wall and into the colony interior.

And low and behold, upon breaking through, there was the prototype out in the open, "well that wasn't too hard now was it." He murmured out loud, adjusting to the colony's rotation he made a run at the prototype but was forced to break off when La Flaga attempted an intercept. Maneuvering behind La Flaga, Le Creuset drew his heavy sword, "I'm done playing with you, now die!" Le Creuset swung his blade but La Flaga maneuvered at the last second in an attempt to bring his remaining weapon to bear, denied the kill Rau settled for destroying the rail gun removing La Flaga from the battle.

Then the artificial mountain face exploded and out of the immense dust cloud a ship emerged. "The new warship? So they failed to destroy it." He had to act quickly.

Turning back to the prototype he fired upon it, the rounds impacting harmlessly against its armor. "Phase Shift…?" He had to admit it was surprisingly effective compared to regular armor, but by how much? The prototype retaliated with its head and shoulder cannons, as he flew past his system blaring a warning.

[Alert; Missile Lock!]

The rear-view camera showed the prototype as it fired two missiles from its shoulder launcher, "good counter, but not good enough." He remarked as he shot them down. Missiles were always easier to shoot down when they were caught in a tail chase, though it helped if you can shoot at targets behind you, one of the advantages of mobile suit was that there had a wide range of motion making handheld weapons highly trainable.

He ejected his rifle magazine and loaded one with armor-piercing rounds, "then how about this." First Rau fired upon the warship with his shield mounted 28mm Vulcan cannon; he noted how it easily evaded his fire despite its size. "Nimble lilt' minx." With that out of the way he made another run at prototype which once again threw up another barrage from its head and shoulder cannons, he fired his rifle and once again the rounds impacted harmlessly. "Not even an enhanced APSV?" Rau was genuinely surprised he hadn't expected the armor to be so effective, surely it had limitations? His system blared another warning.

[Alert; Missile Lock!]

This time it was from the warship, they were larger and approaching at high acceleration. He managed to shoot down two of them before moving behind the orbital shaft, placing it between him and the remaining two missiles where they impacted causing considerable damage. Rau grinned, _'that's the problem with laser guided munitions. They can only target what laser points to.'_ Coming out from behind the orbital shaft, and refocusing on the prototype while been mindful of the warship he noted that it had deployed a new weapon.

However before he could surmise its capabilities it fired, the sudden flare was all the warning he had as the beam raced towards him; he yanked on his controls and managed to avoid a direct hit at the cost of his CGUE's right arm. The beam meanwhile continued onwards and punched a hole through the colony wall, realizing that the odds were against him, he retreated through the makeshift exit.

"How can that be? A mobile suit with that much fire-power." One thing was for certain; the Alliance's new prototypes exceeded his expectations.

* * *

When it landed, the Archangel opened one of its catapult hatches to receive them; having Murrue once again climb into the Strike's hand, they boosted up and landed on the catapult deck where she was lowered to the deck floor.

"Lieutenant Ramius!" Someone called. Turning towards the voice Murrue spotted a near dozen crew members rushing towards her, one of them she recognized.

"Good to see you all made it." She greeted them relieved, but before she could continue a voice called out from the back of group.

"Impressive, I didn't expect it to do so well in its first battle right out of the factory." Making his way towards them was a man with blond hair and a purple and white 'pilot suit' that marked him as a mobile armor pilot.

He saluted as he introduced himself. "I'm Lieutenant Mu La Flaga from the 8th Orbital Fleet."

"I'm Lieutenant Murrue Ramius."

"Ensign Natarle Badgiruel." Both returned his salute.

"The ship I was assigned to was downed in combat, so I'd like permission to come aboard." He requested.

"You'll need to request permission from the Captain." Murrue explained, but when Natarle explained that both the Captain and senior staff had being killed during the initial attack and that Murrue as the last the senior officers alive was next in the chain of command.

When he once again requested permission from her, she granted it, his next question was what became of the five pilots he escorted and Natarle explained that the Captain had being greeting them when they were killed.

"Not all of them, one managed to survive and join up with us. That's how we were able to save the Strike." She turns to the Strike. "Lieutenant! Come down here."

Everyone turned towards the Strike as the hatch opened and the pilot disembarked from the mobile suit. As he did so the crew noticed his outfit.

"What's with that pilot suit?" One asked.

"Never seen that design before, new model?" Another wondered.

"Must be for the G-weapon pilots." Noted another.

Once he had descended he removed his helmet, tucking it under his arm. First time seeing his face Murrue noted his dark hair and tan skin "This is Lieutenant Setsuna F. Seiei," Murrue introduced him. "Thanks to him we were able to save this unit, as well as fight off a GINN."

This surprised much of the crew, made evident be Natarle's exclamation, "you defeated a GINN! Considering the current state of Strike, I'm surprised it performed so well." She said skeptically.

"Well at the start it was a bit touch and go, but we managed to overcome it." Murrue explained.

Mu hesitated his expression thoughtful, "a GINN huh… color me impressed, good to see one of you guys made it. I'm-" He went introduce himself but Setsuna beat him to it.

"-Lieutenant Mu La Flaga," he glanced at Natarle, "and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel." He said with a half hearted salute.

"You... know who we are?" Mu asked curiously.

"Of course." Was Setsuna's stoic reply and then added. "The Strike has excellent sound pickup."

"Sound pickup?" Everyone repeated, dumbfounded.

"Ah! That's right these things were going to be deployed on the ground as well as space." Mu realized. "Sorry, mobile armor pilot. When you've been in space as long as I have, you forget there's such a thing as external sound pickup." He joked attempting to lighten the mood.

Everyone chuckled, with the exception of Setsuna and Natarle so the wave of good humor eventually subsided and the atmosphere quickly became awkward.

"We should move to the bridge and discuss our next course of action" Natarle recommended.

"Of course." Murrue agreed, "Everyone back to your stations." Just like that, the group dispersed to begin repairs on the Strike and Mu's Zero as they exited the hangar along with the bridge crew. First they stopped by one of the ship's many storage rooms, where she, Mu and Setsuna collected new uniforms since most of their personal effects had been lost in the first attack. Before moving towards the bridge she turned to Setsuna.

"Lieutenant. We don't know when the next attack will come, so you may have to deploy in the Strike on short notice." She explained, "You should use this time to rest up, I'll have one of crew show to your quarters." She gestured to one of them who stepped forward.

"Understood." He acknowledged then turned to follow the crewman, the rest of them continued on to the bridge. Meanwhile as Murrue and the others decided their next move, four mobile suits launched from the two ZAFT ships towards the colony.

* * *

Reaching his assigned quarters Setsuna sat down on the bunk. He wasn't sure why he had followed Murrue this far as he had no obligation to help her, he had expected to be thrown back into the fight between Celestial Being and A-laws, only to find something completely different. He had simply followed the path of least resistance while trying to figure out what the heck was going on. When the other pilots were mentioned he normally would've assumed he'd been discovered and bolt, but his alias had held up so far and the crew seemed none the wiser... for now.

Murrue, now acting Captain seemed to be convinced that he was one of them, The Ensign didn't appear to be convinced, but had accepted Murrue's explanation, the mobile armor pilot however had seemed to suspect something but hadn't said anything to contradict Setsuna's claim. Setsuna made a mental note to keep a close eye on Mu La Flaga. Reluctantly, he settled in to rest not bothering to take off his pilot suit, the next time he woke he'll most likely be deployed, the question was; how long was he going to keep this up for?

Sometime later Setsuna was awoken by the call to battle stations; putting on his helmet he retraced his steps back to the hangar. Upon entering he noted that the mobile armor was still undergoing repairs, _'looks like I'm on my own.'_ He continued on towards the Strike, seeing him approach one of the maintenance crew opened the hatch for him, nodding his thanks to the crewman he seated himself into the cockpit and closed the hatch before powering up the Strike.

When the hangar crew updated the bridge on the Strike's status, the order was issued, "move the Strike to the catapult and prep for launch." The Strike's cradle jolted as it lurched towards the airlock doors which opened automatically as it approached before locking it feet into the _'Trolley'_ which had been adapted to launch mobile suits.

After the Strike's weapons were mounted he reported to the CIC. "One-Zero-Five Strike here, weapons are mounted and all systems are green, ready for launch on your order."

Natarle appeared on the monitor, "Lieutenant, as we have yet to calibrate the Strike's gun-sights the use of ranged weapons is considered too ineffective." She informed him. "So we are outfitting you with the Sword Striker Pack for close quarter's battle."

As she explained Setsuna noted the equipment listed on his weapons display.

One "Schwert Gewehr" 15.78m anti-ship sword; a physical blade with a beam emitter built into the cutting edge stored on the power pack. One "Panzer Eisen" Rocket Anchor; a small shield with an anti-beam coating, with built in rocket-propelled grappling claw mounted on left forearm. One "Midas Messer" Beam Boomerang; a throwing beam knife that when under gravity behaves like boomerang. He was positive he could work this.

"The Captain informs me that you can perform adequately in this role." The slight disbelief told him that she was still uncertain about him. "Also, because we are still within the colony interior we cannot fully deploy the Archangel's weapons, for fear that we may cause further collateral damage, and therefore we are only able to provide limited fire support."

"Understood." He acknowledged. "I'll try to isolate enemy units as I engage them so you can pick them off with the ships light weapons."

"Appreciated." She said with small smile, his cooperation made her job easier. "You are clear for launch, forwarding control to you."

"Roger, Setsuna F. Seiei in one-o-five Strike launching." Engaging the catapult Setsuna rocketed along the catapult then upon being released into the air he engaged his PS Armor and took a position in front of the Archangel.

[PS Armor engaged]

Checking his sensors he located one enemy unit approaching by itself, _'Odd, just the one?"_ Suddenly there was an explosion.

A report came over the radio. "Second group approaching, three units... Captain! One of them is X-Three-Zero-Three, it's the Aegis!"

Setsuna magnified the image of the second group, one of them was the red mobile suit that was taken earlier whose design reminded him of the thrones, _'that guy,'_ he recalled the pilot whom he had struggled with earlier whose strength exceeded that of normal humans.

"Strike to Archangel, I'm intercepting the second group I'll delay them as long as I can, focus on the lone GINN." He informed them, accelerating towards the three, he knew he was in for tough battle, but he couldn't allow them to engage the ship inside the colony.

* * *

In the Aegis, Athrun entered the colony through the breach along with Miguel and Olor. Matthew had entered through the colony shaft via the docks; the enemy no doubt already spotted his approach. Athrun had defied orders at the last minute to join the assault, the reason being that he had to confirm something about his opponent. As they made their way to the target at best speed, their sensors picked up an object approaching them.

"Heads up! Here he comes." Miguel warned.

Magnifying the image Athrun confirmed it to be the Strike, as it closed the distance it drew from its back pack what appeared to be a heavy sword.

"Oh no you don't! I'm not letting you close the gap." Miguel took aim at the Strike with his M69 "Barrus" heavy ion cannon and fired, forcing the Strike to evade. "Olor, go after the ship, me and Athrun will take care of this guy." He ordered.

Olor attempted to bypass the Strike and proceed on to the ship but the Strike deployed a grappling claw and snagged his GINN's leg.

"Damn you!" Miguel cursed and fired the Barrus once more but missed; As the Strike reeled in Olor's GINN it readied its heavy sword and charged intent on running him through. Acting quickly Athrun engaged the Aegis' beam saber on its right arm and deflected the sword strike, he then engage the beam saber on right foot and sliced the cable, freeing Olor.

As Olor proceeded to his target the Strike attempted to pursue but was prevented by another blast from Miguel forcing it to bring its shield to bear in order to block the beam. "Good work Athrun," Miguel praised him. "Let's take him down."

While Olor joined up with Matthew and battled the ship, Athrun and Miguel made repeated attempts to box in the Strike as it attempted to pin them down with suppressing fire from its CIWS and engage them up close. After it blocked another shot from the Barrus, Athrun's suspicions were confirmed, _'that pilot isn't an ordinary Natural.'_ He remembered when he had first encountered him during assault on the hangar, when his rifle had run out of ammo; he had drawn his knife and moved to close quarters. There he struggled with whom he believed to be the Strike's intended pilot, as a Coordinator he should have won that struggle easily but the pilot had matched his strength, what was most shocking however had been the glowing eyes staring back at him through the darkened visor.

"Get behind it Athrun." Complying Athrun maneuvered behind it but then the Strike deployed a new weapon, it extracted from its left shoulder an object which it then threw at Miguel's GINN. Fortunately the object-which appeared to be some kind of beam saber traveled slowly and he was able to easily avoid it.

Athrun's relief quickly turned to horror, positioned behind the Strike he saw the weapon changed direction.

"Miguel! Look out!" Athrun warned, doubling back the way it came Miguel didn't have time to dodge and it sliced off one of his GINN's legs, unbalanced by the sudden shift in mass the distraction was all the Strike needed as it accelerated towards Miguel and cleaved his GINN in half destroying it.

"MIGUEL!" Turning on the Strike, "you're going to pay for that!" Transforming the Aegis to mobile armor form he targeted the Strike with the "Scylla" 580mm energy cannon and fired, with no time to raise its shield the Strike maneuvered out of way and the beam hit the colony shaft, elsewhere another section of the shaft was engulfed in an explosion.

"Oh no!" Athrun could only stare in horror as the colony shaft tore itself apart; as the colony collapsed the vacuum sucked both mobile suits out into space.

* * *

 **\- Armed and Dangerous: Phase 4 -**

Athrun looked around at the devastation he had caused, the debris field that not too long ago had been a thriving colony. Controls held in a white knuckled grip he sobbed, "I... didn't mean to." Reluctantly he returned to the Vesalius.

* * *

Setsuna stared at debris field before him in disbelief; he couldn't believe the reckless abandon that the enemy had shown in their unrestrained use of heavy weapons. Not even the A-Laws had been this excessive around a colony; even if it was never revealed to the public their sponsors would still hold them accountable considering how much money, resources and time went into constructing them.

"Archangel to Strike, do you read me." Setsuna recognized Natarle's voice over the radio.

"Strike here, reading you loud and clear." He responded.

"What's you status? Do require assistance?" She asked.

"Minor damage, but it won't prohibit me from returning to the ship, no assistance is required." He answered.

"Understood," she acknowledged, "return to ship ASAP."

"Roger." He affirmed, that's when he picked up a distress signal. Locating the source Setsuna found what appeared to be a lifeboat with a damage propulsion unit. "Strike to Archangel, I've located a damaged lifeboat, please advise."

"What's the state of damage?"She inquired.

"Damage appears to be limited to the propulsion unit. Life support is intact." He reported.

"Orb's rescue fleet is most likely already in route to this location, let them handle it." She advised.

"Understood, returning to ship." He didn't argue, frankly he thought they were safer on the drifting lifeboat than an under crewed battleship with a bull's-eye painted on it. With that he orientated himself towards the ship and took off.

* * *

Meanwhile on the bridge Murrue now acting Captain winced as her shoulder wound continued to plague her.

"You ok?" Mu asked her with worried expression.

Appreciating his concern she reassured him with a small smile, "I'll be fine, it's only a minor injury."

"If you insist, so what's our next move?" He asked.

"We're still in battle; we need to leave the area as quickly as possible." She concluded.

"You want to make a run for the moon?" He asked uncertain. "With only the Strike and my Zero can we make it in the shape we're in?"

"I don't see any other option." She sighed.

"If I may interject, it would be better to head to Artemis." Natarle offered.

"Artemis huh." Mu said his expression thoughtful.

"But Artemis is a Eurasian base." Murrue pointed out, her expression plagued with worry.

"They'll run us down if we make a dash for moon." Mu warned Murrue.

"I'm sure that once we explain our situation that Artemis would understand and provide us with relief, also this ship lacks many vital supplies and without them we won't make it to lunar headquarters." Natarle informed her.

"But neither this ship nor the Strike is outfitted with recognition codes that our allies acknowledge." She pointed out; there was a risk that Artemis would misidentify them as an enemy vessel and attack.

"The only other choice is to give up." Mu countered, "Like you said, we don't have any other option. We have to take our chances with Artemis and hope for the best."

 _'That's precisely what I'm worried about.'_ Murrue thought.

"Ma'am, the Strike has returned." The comm. officer announced.

* * *

In the hangar Setsuna gave Chief Petty Officer Kojiro Murdoch the Strike's damage report.

"So all we need to replace is the rocket anchor and the Midas Messer, could be worse, the Midas Messer will be the easiest, we have plenty of spares seeing as we haven't perfected a way of safely retrieving them in battle. The rocket anchor however isn't so simple; you won't be able to use that equipment any time soon." Murdoch informed him.

"Understood, I'll make do with the other Striker Packs for the time being." Before Setsuna could leave Murdoch had something to say.

"One more thing Lieutenant before you head off, I'm short on staff here and there's too much work to be done, so you're goanna have to maintain your machine, no exceptions, even La Flaga has to pull his weight. Speaking of the Lieutenant I have to get on the horn and respectfully ask him to get his butt down here and tend to his Zero."

Indeed the mobile armor looked to be nearly ready for sortie, the main gun had been replaced and the crews were in the process of fitting the last of four pods to the main body.

"You had replacements for the mobile armor?" He asked

Murdock explained. "Yeah the Marseille's mission along with Lieutenant's was to escort you pilots to Heliopolis, after that the Lieutenant and his mobile armor squadron were to transfer to the Archangel and escort us back to Lunar so supplies for them were sent ahead. Don't know if we'll get there though..."

"What about Artemis? I heard that they were also located in L3 cluster." Setsuna inquired.

"Artemis? That's a Eurasian base." Murdock continued. "Look, the Archangel and the G-Weapons are a secret project funded by the Atlantic Federation. Eurasia may be on our side but we haven't been issued an identification code that they'd recognize with the exception of the Lieutenant's Zero, no one outside the Federation is going to help us. More likely Artemis is going to lock its gates and tell us to get lost or use us for target practice."

With that Murdock turned and made his way to the intercom shouting instructions to the maintenance crew along the way. Making his way back to the Strike it was clear to Setsuna that without a recognition code the nearest allied base couldn't be relied on to commit their forces to aide them, and those that could were located on the other side of the Earth, for all intents and purposes they were on their own. Once he was in the cockpit he brought up the Strikes schematics on the monitor and started going through them, if he was going to help maintain it he needed to familiarize himself with it before the crew realized that he didn't have the slightest clue about it.

Not long after he started there was an announcement over the intercom that they heading for Artemis and that a decoy was being deployed to throw ZAFT off their trail, _'So, we're going to try anyway.'_ It soon became clear to him that the OMNI enforcers were new to mobile suit development made evident by the fact that the Strike's M.O.S was complete garbage; even the outdated Anf had a better system than this. In mobile suit combat even Karathron's forces would trounce them that's how bad it was, in fact he'd put ZAFT's mobile suits in same category as Karathron's.

Nevertheless, between him and the maintenance crew they were able to bring the Strike into some form of order, though it didn't make the M.O.S any less terrible.

* * *

On the Vesalius, Athrun was called to report to the Captain's Cabin.

"Sir, I wished to apologize for my earlier conduct." Athrun addressed him.

"It fine, it wasn't like you, you clearly weren't yourself." Rau casually assured him. "But I still would like an explanation to put in my report to the council."

"I needed to confirm something." That peaked his curiosity, what did Athrun find on Heliopolis that would cause him to disobey orders. "Go on." He encouraged.

"During the assault there were two Earth Force's security personnel between me and final units. I killed one and injured the other, at the point my rifle was empty and I switched to my knife to engage in close quarters. As I got close I encounter whom I believe to be the intended pilot for one of the prototypes and… we struggled." Athrun explained.

"Struggled?" Rau couldn't hide his surprise.

"The enemy pilot has strength that is easily a match for Coordinators, but that's not all. His visor was tinted but I was able to make out some details..." For Athrun this was the hard part to explain. "His eyes... they were glowing."

"Glowing?" Rau said his disbelief evident in his tone. "What are you saying Athrun, are you telling me that the Earth Force's have resorted to enhancing their pilots in order to match us in battle. You do realize how serious an accusation that is?"

"I do sir." Athrun knew what he saying sounded implausible considering the Naturals views on augmenting the human body, however... "But one thing I do know for sure is that pilot isn't normal and considering the state of the prototypes M.O.S there's no way the final unit should've performed so well in previous battles. That pilot is most likely the cause."

"Indeed, it would explain the problems we've had up to this point." Rau agreed. "If so, then all the more reason to destroy it. Every battle it wins vindicates its existence and increases the likelihood that we'll encounter more on the battlefield."

Turning to Athrun, Rau's voice took on a dire tone. "This time we're deploying all the prototypes against the legged ship, no more holding back."

* * *

After maintenance Setsuna managed to get a few hours rest that was once again interrupted by the call to battle stations, _'I hope this doesn't become a habit.'_ He thought hopefully though it was unlikely as he made his way back to the hangar. In the pilots ready room he found Mu La Flaga.

"Good you're here." Mu turned towards him, "listen up this is what were going to do." Mu proceeded to brief him on their battle strategy after that they proceeded to their respective machines.

In the hangar Mu's Zero launched first and went on ahead, meanwhile the Strike was being outfitted for battle, when they went to equip him with the Aile Striker he made a request to Archangel's CIC. "Ensign Badgiruel."

"Lieutenant?" She asked.

"I request the use of the Launcher Striker."

"The Launcher? But the Aile is more balanced in both offence and defense not to mention greater mobility."

"That's the problem it would be too tempting to leave the ship and chase them, we can't allow the Strike to be separated from the ship." His response surprised her. "The Launcher is better suited for a defensive stance and its greater range means I can engage them without moving far from the ship."

Natarle deliberated this for moment, "your request is approved, switching to Launcher Striker. After launch head to the ship's stern, there you will find a power conduit." One of his monitor showed the precise location. "The 'Agni' 320mm hyper impulse cannon design allows it to draw power from an external source, connect it to the conduit and it will draw power from the ship directly," His weapon monitor highlighted the external input connector on the schematic. "The conduit has a short tether so you aren't able to move far from that location without disconnecting." She advised him.

"Understood," then he added. "Thanks for indulging me."

Natarle was taken aback by that statement. "Ah... You're welcome..." She shook herself. "Strike, you are clear for launch."

"Roger, Setsuna F. Seiei in one-o-five Strike launching."

* * *

 **\- Chapter 2 End -**

* * *

 **Author's note;**

So as you have probably noticed, there have already been a number of major changes from canon, Kira and his friends have avoided been drafted by Murrue, thanks to Setsuna on the basis that there is no point in keeping a secret that has already flown the coop.

Secondary Flay's drifting lifeboat has similarly been left behind, so don't have to deal with her - for now. Unfortunately the doctor that treats Murrue's shoulder wound is also on the same lifeboat, so she'll just have to cope for now. Since we all know what becomes of the refugees if they join the Archangel, we can all probably agree that they're safer on lifeboat.

And lastly regarding Exia; it's staying where it is for the moment, Setsuna doesn't know how far he can trust the crew and isn't taking any chances. I'm sure he would rather not attempt to explain Exia's existence, Also with the GN drive toast Exia and its weapons are inoperable - for now.


	3. Unfriendly Allies Part 1 - Phase 5

**Chapter 3: Unfriendly Allies**

 **\- Fighting Retreat Phase 5 -**

* * *

Ensign Natarle Badgiruel along with Petty Officer 2nd Class Jackie Tonomura and Petty Officer 2nd Class Dalida Lolaha Chandra II assessed the situation from ship's CIC. Earlier they had fired a barrage from the ship's 'Lohengrin' Positron Blaster Cannons to cover Lieutenant La Flaga's approach so he could position himself for a surprise attack on the enemy Nazca class positioning itself ahead of them, that left the Laurasia class behind them to deal with.

As Lieutenant Seiei took up his position at the Archangel's stern and connected the 'Agni' 320mm hyper impulse cannon to the ship's power, Natarle's thoughts turned to the mystery that was the Lieutenant.

Natarle wasn't sure what to make of the Lieutenant as his stoic mannerisms made it hard to get a read on him; she had been initially suspicious of him because she couldn't fathom how he could've survived the initial attack. Though like her, he may have gotten lucky and though it chafed her when he to changed the battle-plan at the last minute she couldn't deny that his reasoning was sound, the fact that he was so cooperative – in spite of the fact that he outranked her – was so far his only redeeming feature.

Returning to the task at hand she waited for Petty Officer Tonomura to report the enemy numbers. "Ma'am, Nazca Class has launched one unit, identified as X-Three-O-Three Aegis. Second Group from the Laurasia approaching from our six, three units..." Tonomura double checked his readout. "These are... X numbers! X-One-Zero-Two Duel, One-Zero-Three Buster, and Two-Zero-Seven Blitz."

"What!? They're sending all the prototypes against us, so soon." This was bad; aside from the Strike the Archangel only had a handful of weapons that were effective against the G-Weapons armor. She immediately contacted that Strike. "Lieutenant, the enemy is fielding all the stolen G-Weapons against us, be aware that X-One-O-Three Buster is equipped for long range combat with similar load out to your own."

"Roger that." Setsuna confirmed, "Commencing preemptive strike, targeting the Buster... Firing."

"Hit confirmed," Tonomura reported. "Left arm disabled. 94mm high-energy rifle destroyed."

 _'Excellent!'_ She thought, _'now it can't use its heavy artillery, that leaves its missiles but that will easy enough to deal with.'_ "Fire control; target the Aegis with the Gottfrieds and the forward Igelstellungs." She ordered. "Also have the Valiants and rear Igelstellungs corral the second group into the Strike's firing envelope. Helldarts and ship-to-ship missiles fire at will."

* * *

Setsuna frowned, while the destruction of the Buster's left arm was desirable, the truth was he had intended to destroy it outright but it had managed to evade at the last second. No surprise though, he wasn't Lockon after all, though the fact that the Dylandy twins both excelled at marksmanship – at various ranges – could possibly be chalked up to being genetic, honestly how often do find siblings who excel mostly at the same skill set.

The three mobile suits immediately retaliated with a missile barrage of varying sizes but the combined fire from both the Strike and ship's CIWS proved too heavy to overwhelm and was easily neutralized. They then attempted to close the distance by spreading out but the ship's CIWS and linear guns forced them to bunch up along with being bombarded by numerous missiles as Setsuna liberally fired his high energy cannon into the mix, drawing power directly from the ship helped maintain a reasonably high rate of fire.

His attention diverted from the others when one of the three mobile suits, a black unit dived beneath them where defensive fire was less intense. "No you don't." Locking on to it he fired two missiles from the shoulder mounted 350mm gun launcher. According to the data the Blitz – unlike the other three – had no point defense capabilities and was virtually defenseless against missile assaults. This seemed to be proven after observing it shoot down the larger slower missiles with its beam rifle but was helpless against the smaller, more agile and far more numerous anti-air missiles.

Reeling from the impact of the two missiles the Blitz came under fire from the Igelstellungs mounted underneath the ship. _'Good thing there isn't more of them; otherwise this would've turned out just like when we had to defend Ptolemy from the HRL assault.'_ He recalled refocusing his attention back to the other two he resumed firing.

* * *

Athrun broke off his third attack run in a row even as the ship CIWS peppered him with rounds. Overall the CIWS were the least of his worries, the beam cannons that were tracking him however were the real problem. A yank on the controls allowed him to barely evade another blast; the aim of the ship's gunnery crew seemed to be improving with each solve.

Behind the ship Athrun could see his fellow soldiers under heavy fire, the ship seemingly aware of his desire to aide them was doing its best to keep him from joining them as it continued its barrage. Athrun glanced at his battery status.

"Shit," he cursed. All the impacts from the ship's CIWS were starting to add up, at this rate he'll be forced to withdraw to the Vesalius or risk losing the suit. He made another pass, but was repelled once more.

It became increasingly evident that his comrades' situation was dire; they were clearly trapped behind the ship by enemy fire, forcing them into the firing line of a powerful beam which assailed them at a high rate of fire. No doubt by now they were running low on power, the chances of them successfully withdrawing to the Gamow without any losses was getting slimmer by the minute. One thing was certain, to save his comrades he had to take a risk and destroy that beam cannon.

 _'The Vesalius should be within firing range soon, after the opening solve I'll charge the enemy defenses and make beeline for the cannon.'_ He decided. But then a notice appeared on his monitor informing him the Vesalius had come under attack. Then the ship in front of him deployed two large cannons and fired, Athrun could only watch as the Vesalius took a hit to one of its engines. The Vesalius launched a return signal; Athrun looked back to his comrades still trapped within the enemy's kill box.

"Not Good!" Transforming to mobile armor form he charged the ship, as he did a blast from one of the beam cannons grazed the one of the Aegis' wing binders. He ignored the ship's defensive fire even as they tracked across the prow, flying past the command tower where upon he reached the stern and found the cannon, which turned out to be the Strike.

A cable connecting it to the ship detached as it turned to face him. _'The ship must have warned him; no matter it's already too late.'_ Athrun opened the Aegis' claws and tackled the Strike, dragging it away from the ship.

This would've been the perfect opportunity to employ the Aegis' Scylla cannon but a glance at his battery status indicated that he couldn't fire it, but that was fine he'll just borrow the Gamow's. "Nice work Athrun," Yzak praised him. Seeing him fly past them, Yzak, Dearka and Nicol turned away from the ship and followed after him. _'Now it's four on one, even if we're low on power, if we fight smart we can take him down.'_

A shudder through the Aegis brought his attention back to the captive Strike as it struggled to bring its cannon to bear, it was clear that he wasn't going to be able to restrain it so he opened the claws and braked, allowing momentum to carry the Strike further away from the ship. He then immediately transformed back to mobile suit form and fired his beam rifle.

The Strike countered with its beam cannon – which he barely avoid due to prior damage inflicted by the Legged Ship - only for it come under fire from the rest of his team. While it was preoccupied by the others Athrun radioed the Gamow. "This is Athrun Zala to the Gamow, requesting fire support. Employ 937mm dual high-energy cannons, on target." Athrun designated the Strike as the target.

"This is the Gamow, confirmed target as alliance mobile suit. Firing will begin in T-minus 10 seconds."

 _'This'll even the odds.'_

* * *

When he heard that the Aegis captured the Strike, Mu La Flaga raced back to the ship as fast as his Zero would take him, somehow the Aegis had broken through the defensive perimeter and forced the Setsuna to separate from the ship and the Laurasia was closing in on him from behind.

When Mu arrived to aid the Strike the situation had become dire, the Laurasia was within firing range and was bombarding the Strike with its dual high-energy cannons and the four stolen units surrounded the Strike firing on him from every angle. Though Mu had to admit Setsuna was putting up a valiant defense using the Strike's entire arsenal in its repeated attempts to break the encirclement.

Attacking from below Mu deployed all four gunbarrel pods, each targeting a different suit, firing on all four G-Weapons simultaneously. The four suits staggered under multiple impacts and the Strike managed to disengage and withdraw to the ship at full acceleration.

"That's my cue to leave." He remarked. Breaking off his attack he followed Setsuna's example and made a beeline for the ship at full throttle, the enemy suits recovered quickly however and were hot on their heels. The Strike upon reaching maximum acceleration cut its engine and drifting under its own inertia spun to face its pursuers and fired hyper impulse cannon in a fighting retreat, all the while maintaining its current heading and speed.

After a brief chase the enemy ship deployed a return signal and the pursuers broke off and withdrew to the Laurasia.

Relieved he allowed himself to relax. "Phewwww... that was a close one."

* * *

On the Vesalius in his quarters, Rau Le Creuset stared at the display as a single ship from Artemis' defense fleet moved to intercept the legged ship, as he plotted his next move. His line of thought was interrupted by an incoming call, it was Captain Ades.

"Sir. We have received orders from the Council; we are being recalled to Plants."Ades told him matter-of-factly.

"And we were so close..." He mused, watching as legged ship was lead into Artemis.

"Sir?"Ades waited for Rau's instructions.

"Very well, we'll leave this to the Gamow, have Athrun and his unit transfer over before we leave." He instructed. Rau had a feeling that this wouldn't be the last time he'd go up against the legged ship. "Till next time." He murmured a smile playing on his lips.

* * *

Inside the Archangel's hangar Setsuna made to leave for his quarters and change into his officers uniform, he and Mu were to report to the bridge in preparation for meeting with Artemis' liaison who would be boarding shortly. Before he could leave though he was stopped by Mu.

"Hey Setsuna," he said moving close, "put a lock on the Strike's system, just in case." He then turned and left. Setsuna watched him leave wondering what the heck Mu expected him to do, he understood that the Federation didn't completely trust its allies, perhaps with good reason.

When it came to securing the Gundams from theft, which was left mostly to Veda and during the time that they had been cut off from Veda's support, the Ptolemy crew incorporated their own security measures into the new OS. For the Meisters it was simply a means of physically concealing the suit itself, or the transport they were using, which thanks to its design could be hidden in any number of remote locations, even underwater.

In regards to the Strike thou there wasn't much he could do about it, he didn't have the technical skills to place a virtual lock on the Strike's startup system and physically removing it wouldn't prevent them from towing it out of the hangar. What Mu had essentially asked him to do was to ensure that it never leaves the hangar. Aside from his piloting skills, most of his skill set was rather low tech which was to be expected considering his youth.

Thinking of his early days he was struck by inspiration, he called Murdock over and explained what he needed. His plan guaranteed that no one will be moving the Strike anytime soon, though he suspected that the Ensign Natarle – when she inevitably found out – was liable to strangle him for the misuse of ship's limited supplies.

* * *

On the bridge things had taken an unexpected turn as Artemis' liaison Captain Biddulph and his escorts turned their weapons on the bridge crew. As the ship entered the dock they found themselves surrounded by a portion of Artemis' defense fleet, ranging from warships, to mobile armors and including infantry in vacuum gear.

"What's going on!?" Murrue demanded surprised by their hostile reception.

"I advise you to be silent Captain." Biddulph ordered, "For the moment we will take all necessary precautions. Until we confirm if you are, indeed our 'ally'. Now, I'll require this ship's ranking officers to accompany me to meet the commandant and brief us on your situation."

* * *

 **\- Exia Astray 1: Exia-**

A few hours after the Archangel had fled the destruction of the colony Heliopolis with ZAFT in hot pursuit, a lone ship and a few small craft approached the wreckage. The reason for their presence: they were following a tip that promised to lead them to a big score...

Launching from the Junk Guild's ship H.O.M.E; a Marseille III class ship, three mobile worker pods called Chimeras – highly customized Mistrals – flew through the debris, searching for the factory block.

"What's our entry path?" Lowe inquired to the Professor on H.O.M.E. 18 years old, he was easygoing and carefree he is an extremely skilled mechanic able to troubleshoot problems on the spot; he's was the glue that keeps his motley crew together.

"Forward on course 4C-R3." Was her response.

"Okay! Roger." He acknowledged.

Approaching the entrance to the factory, the lead Chimera used its one manipulator hand to open the hatch. Liam – 20 years old and the only Coordinator in the group – checked to see if it had being used recently. "Entrance. All clear."

"Excellent! We got here first!" Lowe could barely contain his enthusiasm.

"This place is a wreck-" Kisato – 16 years old – quickly dodged some floating debris that appeared out of the darkness. "-Whoa! Close call!"

"Kisato! Be careful!" Lowe chastised her. "Don't get nervous on me!"

"B-but... Are-are you sure we're safe?" She had good reason to be nervous, she hated fighting and considering what recently happened here. "The Earth Alliance were fighting here a few hours ago, right?"

"The evacuation was complete. Trust me; we are all alone in here." Liam a coordinator who often follows the most logical course of action - most of the time - reassured her.

"Hey, Kisato. You should listen to Liam. The guy's hardly ever wrong! This colony is a veritable gold mine for Junk Techs like us! Now let's move. We don't have much time. We have to get the goods before the other guys get here. You can leave if you want, Kisato, but we're staying!"

"Don't kick me out, guys! W-what if the soldiers back?" She asked.

"Simple. We'll leave. Besides if we get mixed up in a fight... Good ol' 8 will bail us out." Lowe pointed out.

[Affirmative. I am an expert in all forms of combat.] 8 displayed on its screen, 8 was an artificial intelligence contained within a briefcase sized computer with flat screen mounted on the side and can be carried by handle, 8 often acted as Lowe's advisor. [I have the entire history of human warfare in my database. The first rule of combat-]

Patting the computer's casing affectionately Lowe interrupted, "Not now. We're not _in_ combat."

"Lowe, can you hear me?" Came the voice over the radio.

"Yeah what's shakin', Professor?" He asked. The Professor was an attractive woman who wore glasses and a lab coat over a red shirt and trousers. Little was known about her history other than she is a highly skilled scientist, but one shouldn't be fooled by her appearance, she'll talk down to you if you get on her bad side.

"Advance about 80 meters... Then turn right." She directed. "According to these blueprints, you should find a factory. I trust that you can scrounge up something valuable."

"You know me. I always do!" After that the trio exited their Chimeras to search on foot, Lowe always overeager didn't wait for a atmospheric analysis – at times like these one wonders how on earth he survived up till now – after searching the debris Kisato found some valuable electronics, but Lowe wasn't interested in the small stuff, he was looking for the jackpot.

Liam still in his Chimera, concluded that most of the damage was the result of an internal explosion. Suddenly Lowe spotted something. "Liam, bring the Chimera to my position! We're gonna dig over here!" Liam began digging and uncovered a white and gold arm from a mobile suit, concluding that the body was close by; Lowe boarded his Chimera and set to work enthusiastically. Suddenly the floor beneath him collapsed and the little gravity left dragged him down with it.

Inside the cockpit 8 had landed on top of Lowe's head during the crash giving him a splitting headache, manipulating the controls he found that his Chimera was trapped under the debris that had fallen on top of him. Forcing the hatch open he set out to investigate, activating a wrist mounted flashlight he scanned the room, what he found pasted a grin on his face.

He chuckled. "8! Give our coordinates to Liam!" Over the radio he contacted the others. "Liam, Kisato! Get your asses down here! My friends, we have hit pay dirt!"

Inside the room were two mobile suits one red and one blue, not too far from there Kisato discovered something in a room close by.

"Hey guys! Check this out!" Kisato called. Lowe and Liam came over investigate, what they found was another mobile suit. However this one was somewhat different from the other two, as the group looked it over they discovered that it had been severely damaged.

"Man! Whatever it was that took this guy out went right through, I can see all the way to the other side." Lowe said as he checked the damage to mobile suit's chest, he then moved on to check the cockpit.

"Still other than that, there's no other serious damage." Kisato remarked.

"That's probably because the damage sustained must have been critical enough to cause it cease functioning." Liam explained.

"What's makes you say that?" Kisato asked.

"If it were salvageable the pilot wouldn't have abandoned it so readily." Liam pointed out, gesturing towards the cockpit.

"Liam's right. There's no power to console whatsoever." Lowe agreed, "whatever happened turned this suit into a giant paperweight. Anyway we'll take this one too."

"This one as well?" Kisato asked. "Aren't you being a little greedy?"

"Don't be silly Kisato, there's a mystery to solve here."

Liam sighed, the logic of naturals always seemed to baffle him. Lowe had 8 run a system check on the blue one as he started it up and found that it even had a functioning beam rifle. Suddenly they received an urgent transmission from the Professor.

"There's a mobile armor unit heading your way."

"Another Junk Tech?!" He asked.

"No. A mercenary. Fully armed." She warned. "He's got a boatload of weaponry. Don't fight him."

As Kisato began panicking, Lowe quickly decided on a course of action. "8, Let's get it on!"

"Lowe?" Liam had a feeling that he wasn't going to do the sensible thing and run.

"The Chimera isn't made for combat." Lowe pointed out before adding. "But this Blue Frame MS is!"

With that Lowe engaged the controls. "Isn't it wiser to run away from a lost cause?" Liam muttered to himself watching as Blue Frame lifted itself off the transport, _"Natural's have a strange sense of logic."_

"Guys, haul the other two frames outta here for me. Thanks!" Lowe instructed them.

"Roger." Liam acknowledged.

"Be careful!" Kisato said unable to hide her concern.

Lowe took off in search of enemy.

* * *

On the H.O.M.E. the ship had being boarded by one of the mercenaries who now held the Professor hostage at gun point on the bridge.

"I've warned my team about your crew." She said unconcerned.

"That's fine." The merc said unfazed as he kept his pistol trained on her, he was a relatively young man with white hair had a vertical scar across his right eye. The Professor guessed that he wasn't much older than 15.

"Yes, but... why did you let me?" She asked confused as to why he didn't stop her from contacting her team.

"We're mercenaries. The 'Serpent Tail'" He declared. "Combat is our bread and butter. Besides, most people surrender in the face of superior firepower."

The Professor smirked. "Yeah, most people do."

* * *

Moving through the factory at speed a Moebius mobile armor equipped with a gatling cannon replacing its standard issue linear gun and the 'Serpent Tail's' insignia emblazoned across the machine's nose, flew through corridors searching for its target. Traversing through the factory's docks, taking advantage of a zero gravity environment the corridors were as likely to split off up and down as they were to go left or right, due to up and down being relative to perspective.

It was from one of these - relatively - downward corridors that one of the mobile armor's targets appeared.

"There you are! Take this!" Lowe fired his beam rifle but the Moebius changed the direction of its thrusters to evade and countered with its swivel mounted gatling cannon, the Blue Frame using traditional foam metal armor plating was forced to escape into the corridor above it to avoid damage.

"He avoided that beam-rifle blast! What the hell?!" That attack had nearly hit him, he then came to realization. _'He didn't hesitate to fire. That means he's not interested in the MS.'_ Lowe grinned, "well, he might be pretty handy in battle, but I bet he's never faced a genius like me before! I'm gonna make sure he remembers this fight!" He set his cunning plan into motion.

When the Moebius finally caught up to him, it was to find Lowe floating outside of the cockpit and above Blue Frame his hands raised in surrender, contrary to that he was grinning as he mentally counted down. The pilot popped his hatch.

"Now, 8!" Suddenly Blue Frame came online, raised its beam rifle and fired. Surprised the pilot leaped away from his craft, to Lowe's surprise the pilot rebounded off debris floating nearby to close the distance between them and pair grappled.

"That was a decent plan." The merc praised him.

"What do you want?" Lowe demanded as they struggled.

"I'm here to destroy the mobile suit." The merc replied before pushing off towards Blue Frame, this had the effect of sending Lowe in the opposite direction where he collided with some of the floating debris. After successfully reaching Blue Frame the merc turned towards Lowe and aimed a pistol at him. He reiterated, "My objective is to destroy the mobile the suit. I can't leave any witnesses, either."

"Damn!" Lowe cursed. "I'm in the Junk Guild. No way I'm gonna let you do that! This is a find of a life-time!"

The merc unsealed and removed his helmet revealing his face, he had dark hair and was wearing shades over his eyes. "Ah. Such a compelling argument, but... what the hell can you do about it, you 'Junkie?!'"

"I'll come up with something. I'm a lucky bastard. After all, I hit a goldmine with these mobile suits.

"One does not survive in combat with luck alone." The merc took aim at Lowe but before he could fire a transmission from the Blue Frame's radio interrupted them.

"Gai, we have an emergency!"

"Elijah!" It was the merc who boarded the H.O.M.E.

"We're been double-crossed! Our clients are attacking us!" On 8's monitor Elijah's panic was evident. "I need backup _now_ **!** I need you _here_ **!"**

Overhearing the conversation Lowe expression was rather smug. "Ha! Well, ain't that a kick in the pants! Looks like your _'clients'_ also consider you a _'witness_.'" The merc - Gai - made no response; instead he tossed 8 out of the cockpit towards Lowe.

[Please refrain from tossing me! :( ]

Lowe caught 8. "Hey! Careful with that!"

"You can keep your outdated computer... but I am borrowing this!" Blue Frame hatch closed, after a moment it took off leaving the factory.

"Don't Monkey with my machine!" Lowe called after him. "8, are you okay?"

Suddenly Liam appeared on 8's screen. "Lowe. Looks like our ship is in trouble. It's been boarded. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm still in one piece." He responded. "Liam can we operate the Red Frame mobile suit?"

* * *

When Lowe made it back to others he immediately moves towards Red Frame's cockpit as Liam and Kisato finished readying the machine. "Everyone, we have a message from the mother ship. It's the Professor." Liam explained. "Apparently, that mercenary went to rescue his partner under attack from enemy fire."

"Enemy? Who?" Kisato asked.

"Their employer." Lowe answered.

"What!?" Kisato was at a loss. "That doesn't make sense!"

"You're so slow, Kisato." He said as he continued to work on the cockpit, Kisato grimaced. Lowe continued. "The mercenary was instructed to kill anybody who saw the mobile suits."

"Including their own kind..." Liam concluded.

"You got that right, Liam."

"What are you planning to do with this after activation, Lowe?" Liam asked.

"I'm gonna save that mercenary's ass! Gotta go!" With that he closed the hatch and activated the Red Frame.

Liam couldn't believe what he just heard. "What!?"

"That's insane!" Kisato rebuked him. "Why?!"

"We're all in the same boat." Lowe explained "Besides… That idiot mercenary is flying around in my goddamed booty! I don't want him to screw it up!"

Liam tried to reason with him. "Wait, Lowe! You're not a pilot! You can't fight!"

Typically Lowe disregarded Liam's warning. "Hey, I'm an expert mechanic and the best 'Junk tech.' If it's a machine I can figure it out!" With that Lowe took off after the mercs.

* * *

Meanwhile on the Junk Guild's mother ship H.O.M.E the Professor, who had long dark hair, wearing a lab coat and spectacles, watched the battle unfold between the merc's mobile suits and their employer's mobile armors, while smoking a cigarette.

"I know they're fighting for their lives, but... They're putting up a pretty exciting fight." Well the Blue Frame was, his partner in the GINN who had boarded her ship was rather crap despite the GINN's three-to-one advantage against mobile armors. To be fair though he had been severely outnumbered until his partner arrived.

The Professor noted that one of the mobile armors had suddenly changed course. "Oh, crap! They're coming, right, at, me." Unfortunately the H.O.M.E had no defensive weapons whatsoever and thus was completely helpless. She watched the mobile armor's approached with a dubious expression. "This could be very, very, bad."

Suddenly out of nowhere an object collided with the mobile armor. "Professor! Thanks for waiting!"

Recognizing Lowe's voice she responded. "No problem! Glad you made it!"

"You know me! I never wanna miss out on all the fun!" Drawing both of Red Frame's beam sabers Lowe engaged the remaining mobile armors. "Who's next?"

* * *

Later, back on the H.O.M.E.

"The mercenaries... t-took off!" Kisato informed the others.

"Lowe... They still have the Blue Frame mobile suit. Are you okay with that?" The Professor asked. Earlier Lowe and mercs met on the H.O.M.E's bridge, seeing that both groups would be pursued for their involvement with the prototype mobile suits they agreed to a ceasefire, Lowe even relinquished the Blue Frame to them before they parted ways, something about paying his dues. Which was very unlike Lowe.

"Yeah, sure. We got the Red Frame. Why be a greedy bastard?"

[Be honest, Lowe. The tightening of your vocal cords is indicative of lying. Hee, hee!] 8 teased.

"Shut up!" Lowe angrily kicked the hapless computer away sending it flying in low gravity of the bridge. Lowe's thoughts returned to topic of the mercenaries. _'I'm sure I'll run into him again.'_

"Two complete mobile suits, one of which has sustained damaged and one spare arm." Liam recounted their gains from their expedition. "We could not ask for more."

The Professor noted that the ship's sensors detected that a number of ships were gathering around the wreck, most of them were probably Junk techs like them looking for salvage, a number of them however were likely to pirates.

* * *

In the H.O.M.E's hangar, Liam finished applying the Junk Guild's insignia to the Red Frame to identify the unit as one of theirs; of course Lowe had to take it one step further by applying his name over the top of it in order to stake his _'specific'_ claim to it. At times Lowe could be such a child.

Kisato asked whether they thought that the main body of the Gold Frame was still on Heliopolis, Lowe thought so as well but admitted that there wasn't time for a thorough search. Liam showed her some interesting data that they had extracted from Red Frame regarding security measures to prevent other mobile suits from using its weapons.

The topic then turned to the mystery mobile suit that Kisato stumbled upon. "Now, regarding the other suit, we've determined that the majority of the damage is restricted to three main components." Liam explained. In another section of the hangar nearby the mystery suit's damaged components had been removed for analysis. "First off; starting from the back of the mobile suit is a type of cone-shaped propulsion unit, damage is moderate and most likely salvageable. However it doesn't appear to be your typical ion drive used commonly by mobile suit and armors. Secondly; is the powerplant."

"A powerplant, don't mobile suits run on batteries?" Kisato asked.

"That's correct Kisato, all mobile suits and armors, including both the Red and Blue Frames. Ever since the energy crisis that resulted in the reconstruction war. This one however appears to be the exception to the rule in that it produces its own power, we should assume that it allows the suit to operate for extensive periods of time.

This brings us to the matter of the mobile suits power grid... In addition to conventional electrical wires, there are other conduits whose purpose and function that we are unable to determine at this time."

""What!?"" Lowe and Kisato exclaimed.

"There's more... I've been tracing the grid's path throughout the suit and a number of them end in voids inside the armor."

"Sandwiching power cables between the armor, isn't that kind of pointless?" Lowe mused.

"I didn't say they were running the cables through the voids, only that they connect to them or more specifically they discharge into them." Liam explained.

"What's the point of that?" Kisato asked.

"At this point we don't know, until the Professor does an in depth analysis of the powerplant we can only assume that there is some benefit or purpose to doing so, perhaps the armor reacts in some particular fashion. Which brings us to last component extracted from the suit, we believe it be a form of capacitor for the suits power grid, we have also identified other such components - albeit smaller - distributed throughout the mobile suit, most are concentrated in the limbs. The one weapon recovered is also outfitted with one, though it appears that it has also been applied to the blade itself and that's about all we know at this point." Liam concluded.

"Any ideas on who made it?" Lowe inquired.

"Unfortunately there are virtually no identifying marks linking to any particular group or country and its design is completely different to the ones discovered in Heliopolis, so we can conclude that it wasn't built by them. However... we may have one possible identifier located on the units head." Liam brought up an image he had taken of it; six letters could be made out. G.U.N.D.A.M.

"Aside from that, the only other thing we found was this in the cockpit." Liam held up a transparent capsule containing a yellow flower.

"A flower, was it a gift?" Kisato wondered, being a romantic at heart she couldn't help but wonder what such a thing would be doing in a mobile suit.

"Possibly, the capsule is designed to withstand a vacuum." Liam told her. "So it was clearly intended to be brought into space."

Meanwhile Lowe scrutinized the letters. "Gundam? Hey, I've seen these letters before."

""You have?"" Liam and Kisato were surprised.

"Yeah, when you start up the Red Frame's M.O.S. the words **G** eneral **U** nilateral **N** euro-link **D** ispersive **A** utonomic **M** aneuver appear." Lowe explained. "If you take the first letter of each word you get, Gundam."

Both Kisato and Liam sighed at Lowe's half baked theory. Kisato was the first to express her doubts. "Lowe, not to burst your bubble or anything but I think your way off."

"What!?" He exclaimed.

Liam moved in for the kill. "First of all, gundam isn't an acronym for the M.O.S, you made that up yourself. Second; even if it was, there's no point in inscribing it on the mobile suits external armor!"

Before Lowe could argue the Professor hailed them over the intercom. "I need you guys on the bridge!"

* * *

 **\- End of Chapter 3 -**


	4. Unfriendly Allies Part 2 - Phase 6

**\- Unfriendly Allies Phase 6 -**

* * *

Armed troops from Artemis stormed the ship's hangar and began herding the personnel out towards another part of the ship, where as Mu and Setsuna were instead guided to a shuttle. In route they met up with Murrue and Natarle, lead by an officer with an armed escort and soon they were transferred to Artemis.

Upon reaching the door to the commandant's office, one of the two guards flanking the door keyed the intercom. "Sir. The ship's officers have arrived."

The response was immediate. "Enter."

The other guard opened the door for them and the four of them entered while their escort remained outside. Inside the room behind a large desk were two men, sitting at the desk was no the doubt the commander and standing off to the side was clearly his XO, a series of monitors mounted on the wall behind them were linked to together to show either several images or one large one.

"Greetings and welcome to Artemis. I am Gerard Garcia, Commandant of this space fortress." He greeted them; he didn't introduce his XO deeming it unnecessary. After introductions were made he confirmed their identification.

"Lieutenant Murrue Ramius, Lieutenant Mu La Flaga and Ensign Natarle Badgiruel. I've confirmed that you all have authentic Atlantic Federation ID's," he looked to Setsuna, "except you _Lieutenant_. According to the system, you don't exist."

Murrue, Mu and Natarle all glanced sidelong at Setsuna who showed no reaction whatsoever, nor did he offer an explanation.

"He's with intelligence commandant," Mu explained, "and you know what they're like, any personal data and military history is under lock and key, eyes only." The confusion on Murrue and Natarle's faces was evident judging by the looks they were giving him, as he hadn't volunteered this information beforehand.

"True, the alliance does take intelligence matters seriously." Garcia agreed though he didn't sound convinced.

Mu continued projecting confidence in his voice. "I personally escorted him from Lunar HQ when my superiors informed us at the last minute that he would be tagging along."

"Lieutenant, I request an explanation." Natarle asked.

"Yes Lieutenant." Murrue said icily, her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Exactly when were you going to share this with us?"

Laughing nervously knowing that he was going to regret it later he explained. "Ideally your original Captain would've briefed you, of course how much he'd have told you... who could say."

"Really." Murrue and Natarle spoke simultaneously, glaring at him; Garcia appeared to be enjoying seeing Mu under such scrutiny, he turned to Setsuna for help.

Thou he hid it well; Setsuna was quite surprised that Mu would cover him with such a blatant lie; it was telling just how little he trusted the Eurasian forces. "Lieutenant La Flaga is correct, and before you ask, I'm afraid I can't disclose the details of my mission to you Commandant." Setsuna informed him.

"Well… with a man of La Flaga's reputation vouching for you I'll have to take your word for it." Garcia acquiesced.

"You've heard of us?" Mu asked thankful for the change in topic.

"Having fought on the Grimaldi Front myself, how could I not have heard of the 'Hawk of Endymion.'" Garcia explained. "While the battle may have ended in defeat, your praise worthy use of the Zero to destroy five GINNs is at very least to say exemplary. May I ask why you of all people are on the Archangel?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say, sir." Mu politely answered.

"Understandable, though I'm sure you're aware that it'll take some time to resupply you." Garcia pointed out.

"And I'm sure you understand that it's paramount that we reach Lunar HQ as soon as possible." Murrue countered.

"Especially with ZAFT dogging our heels." Mu added.

Garcia glanced at his XO who returned the look. "ZAFT?" He asked with mocking smile an image appeared on the monitor behind him.

On it only one ship was visible, "the Laurasia class?" Natarle noted out loud, there was no sign of the Nazca anywhere. _'Did they withdraw? Was the damage we inflicted that extensive?'_ she wondered.

"As you can see there is nothing ZAFT can do so long as the barrier is up. We are perfectly safe, not once has Artemis' defenses being breached." Garcia suddenly noticed a red mark on Murrue's uniform. "Lieutenant. You're wounded?"

"It's nothing, just minor injury, sir." She assured him.

Garcia however saw this as the perfect opportunity to cease their objections, he smiled. "Nonsense, we can't have our commanding officers running around like the walking wounded. It's bad for morale; I'll have you taken to the infirmary to have that looked at. Afterwards you'll join your fellow officers in specially prepared quarters." He told her, keying the console in front of him to summon the guards outside.

"Commandant-" Mu tried to reason with him but was interrupted when the door to the office opened.

"Excuse me sir, if you all would come with me." With that the three of them were escorted to a guarded room while Murrue was taken to the infirmary – under guard.

* * *

On the ship the crew were all herded into the mess hall, an indignant Murdock after being escorted to and from the men's room sat down next to the ships helmsman Arnold Neumann.

"Just how long do they plan to hold us here?" Petty Officer Chandra grumbled."It seems a bit much for simple ID check."

"I think there's more to it than that, they're after something." Neumann reasoned quietly.

"You think they're after the Strike?" asked Tonomura.

"Don't worry about the Strike," Murdock whispered with a grin, "It ain't moving anytime soon, the Lieutenant saw to that."

In the hangar Artemis' engineers shuttled over from Artemis to examine the Strike found an unexpected surprise sitting in the cockpit.

* * *

"This is inexcusable," Natarle ranted. "There is no reason for this level of treatment."

"True, but there's nothing we can do about it." Mu reasoned lounging in one of the chairs as Natarle continued to pace back and forth in frustration; Meanwhile Setsuna was busily examining the room looking for who knows what.

Natarle ceased pacing. "I know, but still..." she said helplessly.

"I hear what you're saying..." Mu assured but then changed track. "My problem is that I think the commandant is far too overconfident in this fortress."

"You think ZAFT can get past its defenses?" She asked doubtful.

"Don't get me wrong. The light wave barrier is a revolutionary defense system, but Artemis isn't strategically important enough for ZAFT to mount a serious effort to take it." Mu pointed out. "The shield hasn't been blooded yet."

"But how would they get through?" Natarle wondered out loud.

"What about stealth?" Setsuna asked still examining the wall. He could of several approaches that Celestial Being could attempt in order to assault a fortress like this.

"Unfortunately due to the interference by the N Jammers, you don't really need stealth. However, unless you can bend light there's there's no way to slip past Artemis' ladar net without being spotted, it's just not possible..." Mu suddenly noticed that Natarle had frozen in place. "Natarle...?"

"The Blitz." She admitted, "It's outfitted with a prototype optical stealth system."

"Seriously?!" Was Mu's response.

"So they have a way in." Setsuna stated.

"I don't know... at the time of the attack only the physical hardware had been installed. The software and hardware calibrations were to be done during trial testing after we returned to Lunar." She explained. "In theory it should work... but in terms of duration and effectiveness we don't have any hard data."

"We should assume the worse." Setsuna advised.

"Your right." Mu agreed. "Le Creuset is the kind of person who likes to hoist us by our own petard. The enemy's plan would be first; to seemingly withdraw from the area, in response the barrier comes down."

Setsuna joined the conversation, "Second; the Blitz launches and approach while under cloak, upon reaching the fortress it will most likely attempt to identify and disable the barrier's emitters." It was what he would do.

"If the emitters are camouflaged, the Laurasia may launch a long range bombardment to draw them out." Natarle added. "Once a hole has been breached in the barrier the Laurasia will most likely launch its remaining machines."

Mu continued, "Third; the Blitz will hit the port to cover its reinforcements as they transit into the battle. It will then move deeper into the port searching for our ship letting the Laurasia take over covering the others."

There was a pause as the group absorbed the situation. "Well we have a good idea what the enemy is going to do. Now the question is; what are we going to do other then sit here and wait."

Surprisingly Setsuna had already thought of that. "When the ship bombards the fortress, Artemis' personnel will all be focused on the external threat, which will be our chance to escape." He started taking off his boots.

"Assuming we could escape, we still need to retake the ship and even if we did, the Blitz would most likely would have found us and attempt to engage, at the very least to delay our escape." Natarle said thoughtfully.

"In which case, I and Setsuna's first order of business is to launch and provide cover for the Archangel until it can get out of port." Mu concluded.

"Negative," Setsuna said, putting his boots back on after retrieving a number of objects.

Mu and Natarle gave him a bewildered look. He explained "You said to put a lock on the Strike, I interpreted that as; 'make sure the Strike can't be moved.' I'm afraid that the measures I took prevent the Strike from being deployed in an emergency."

Mu turned to Natarle, "well Natarle, looks like it's up to you and me to defend the ship."

Natarle's face reddened, "um...yes." She turned to Setsuna. "Speaking of which, what did you do to the Strike?"

* * *

Commandant Garcia stormed towards the Archangel's hangar in a foulest of moods. The day had started out so well, the Federation's secret project had practically jumped into his lap, the officers were securely tucked away and the loitering ZAFT ship had slunk away with nothing to show for its efforts. Bad news came in the form of discovering an explosive device sitting in the pilot's seat. The engineers had called EOD whom upon examining the device informed them of more bad news which in turn made its way up the chain of command to Garcia, who then transferred over from Artemis to eyeball the problem personally.

"What's the situation?" Garcia demanded.

"The techs discovered an IED jury rigged into the cockpit, sir." The EOD officer informed him. The IED in question was large steel cylinder seated directly on top of the pilots chair for all to see, coming out of the top of the cylinder's base was a rat's nest of wires, these wires lead into the cockpits electronics where panels had being removed.

"Looks overly elaborate," Garcia observed, "could it be a dummy?"

Instead of answering the EOD pointed to a nearby trolley carrying a one of the Archangel's anti-ship sledgehammer missiles… minus its explosive warhead. Garcia could feel the beginning of a headache building behind his eyes.

"Can you disarm it?"

"Not in timeframe you want, sir." The EOD answered. "The fiend that rigged this up designed it so that if we disconnect it from the cradle, it would start the countdown timer for the suits built in self-destruct. Good news we can disarm that easily, the real problem," he gestured towards the rat's nest, "is that the warhead is rigged to detonate in the event that the self-destruct is subverted. We've got no choice but to tackle the warhead first."

"So? What's the holdup?" He demanded.

The EOD once again pointed at the rat's nest, "the holdup sir is this. I can guarantee that half of these wires are dummies, one half do nothing but waste our time as we cut them one by one and the other half trips the self-destruct.

As for disarming the warhead the relevant wires are arranged in one of two ways; firstly, they could be buried in the rat's nest and we have to run a gauntlet to get at them. Secondly, it may be hiding in plain sight so the fiend can disarm it without going through the same headache as we are. Unfortunately only he knows which." There was a third dumb option that he neglected to mention where as the bomb's rat's nest of wires were all for show and that it was completely harmless, but EOD procedure was that unless absolutely certain it was to be treated as a creditable threat.

"Fine then! Have some the ship's crew show you how to disarm it."

"No good sir. None of the ship's personnel have the skill set needed to improvise this, except..."

"Go on."

"Your mystery Lieutenant may just have that skill set in his non-descript background, sir."

* * *

After Setsuna explained the precautions he took, Mu grinned. "Wow, that's just fiendish."

Natarle was lost for words, they had been waiting for quite some time now and Murrue had yet to return from the infirmary so they were killing time while they waited for the inevitable attack. Suddenly the room was rocked by an explosion.

Natarle finally found her voice. "Looks like the enemy has made their move."

"Then it's time we made ours." Setsuna applied plastic explosive to the door and attached a detonator – both of which he had smuggled in his boots – and blew the door off its hinges. He and Mu then rushed the guards posted outside the door who were still recovering from the blast and debris, they then appropriated the guards' weapons and made to move on when Natarle stopped them.

"Wait! What about the Captain?"

Setsuna was about to offer to go find her but Mu – who couldn't pass up the chance to play the knight in shining armor – beat him to it.

"I'll find our misplaced captain, Setsuna take Natarle and help her retake the ship." Mu ordered him. "I'll catch up with you later." With that sorted out they split-up with Natarle following after Setsuna as fast as her high heels would allow.

* * *

After some searching Mu had managed to find the infirmary, after taking out the guard he made his way inside. Apparently the doctor and his physicians were preoccupied elsewhere with the ensuing chaos and he was able to sneak in easily, only one of infirmary's beds was occupied.

Yanking back the privacy screen he was gifted with the sight of a topless Murrue, apparently they had just finished patching her up when the attack came. The two stared at one another briefly, or more specifically she stared at him and he was staring at her cleavage. Upon recalling her state of undress she reflexively slapped him hard enough to send him sprawling across the floor.

By the time he picked himself up off the floor, Murrue had gotten dressed and two of them began to make their way back to the ship. By this time the Blitz had entered the port and was searching for the Archangel.

* * *

Things hadn't gotten any easier for Setsuna and Natarle since they split up with Mu, the fortress was taking a lot of damage and there were hull breaches everywhere exposing parts of Artemis to vacuum causing many of its internal bulkheads to close sealing off entire sections of station.

Suffice to say they were trapped.

"Looks like the only way to the ship is to go outside." Natarle observed. Setsuna agreed; fortunately they were trapped in part of the docks, this one lead to Moebius mobile armors. The pair raided the pilot's locker room, as Setsuna suited up; Natarle went for one of the normal suits.

"Unless you plan on flying on your own I'd recommend a pilot suit." Setsuna informed her.

"What!? Why?" She demanded, firstly; the reason she went for a normal suit was that they were designed to be put on quickly in the event of an emergency. That meant that they were a one-size-fits-all with only a few exceptions to what you couldn't wear underneath it – which made them somewhat bulky – with the exception of her hat and shoes, all see needed to do was hike up her skirt and she'd have it on in under a minute and ready to leave. Secondly; she couldn't fly a Moebius.

For Natarle this caused a bit of dilemma, pilot suits were designed to fit inside a cramped cockpit and provide protection for mobile armor pilots against vacuum. As a result they were form fitting and took few exceptions to what could warn underneath them – which was why some of Setsuna's uniform was floating around the room abandoned – that meant she'd have to strip down.

"The cockpit is going to be a tight fit as it is," he pointed out. If they had been going out in the Strike he wouldn't have said anything as its cockpit was a little roomier, however if the Moebius was anything like Mu's Zero it was going to be quite a tight fit with the pair of them. "Or would you rather I strapped you to the hull?"

Through gritted teeth she tossed her cap, kicked off her high heels, shrugged off her jacket and unzipped her skirt. However she absolutely refused to surrender her underclothes – it was all she had left to preserve her dignity – and wrestled with the form fitting pilot suit. When she turned she found Setsuna watching her, he had already finished suiting up.

"How long have you been staring!?" She exclaimed.

"Attack in progress, waiting on you." He answered unfazed by her reaction.

Incensed she stormed passed him to the airlock. "Whatever, let's just get going already."

Setsuna coughed, "ahem."

"What!?" She demanded still flustered from before, only to find him holding out a helmet. Embarrassed she snatched it from his hand, with that they proceeded to the mobile armors.

* * *

On the ship, the Archangel's crew was on the same wavelength as their officers and took advantage of the commotion to overwhelm the guards and retake the ship. Not that it was all that difficult, when the attack started most of the guards and the accompanying techs, along with Commandant Garcia were fleeing the ship in mass back to the safety of Artemis. Resuming their stations, the Archangel crew readied the ship for takeoff.

"What about the others?" Chandra asked.

"Focus on getting the ship ready, it won't do them any good if we're not ready to leave at moment's notice." Neumann pointed out.

Not long after, Murrue and La Flaga made it to the ship. Mu immediately diverted to the hangar to ready his Zero for launch while Murrue continued on to the bridge. Not seeing Natarle when she entered Murrue asked. "Has Setsuna and Natarle returned yet?"

"Negative Captain."

"Captain! Enemy approaching from twelve o'clock, it's the Blitz!"

"The Blitz!? Takeoff now! We'll escape through the port on the opposite side. Fire control, throw up a barrage!"

"Captain? What about-"

"-We're a sitting duck right now! They'll have to take care of themselves."

"Aye Captain."

* * *

Mu launched his Zero as fast as the launch procedures would allow under emergency conditions and quickly turned to engage the Blitz with somewhat limited success. Because most of the Zero's ballistic weaponry was ineffective against the Blitz's PS Armor, it all he could do to harass it while stalling for time needed for the Archangel to escape. Fortunately he had help.

Help came in the form of a barrage from the ship's Igelstellungs peppering the Blitz as the ship detached from the dock; Mu deployed his wire-guided gunbarrels and bombarded the Blitz covering the ship's retreat. As the Archangel pulled away Mu was faced with a dilemma. 'Now how to disengage and return to the ship without being shot down?' He wondered.

Trapped in a lethal dogfight in the cluttered port, which he had no hope of winning Mu got some respite when out of nowhere a Moebius outfitted with standard armaments engaged the Blitz firing two of its missiles the impacts stunning it.

"This is Setsuna, time to go." Came over the radio.

"Setsuna…? Alright kid one more attack run and then we split." he radioing back.

"Roger." Setsuna acknowledged, the pair opened up on the Blitz with their autocannons and linear guns the barrage sending it spiraling out of control under numerous impacts. To cover their escape Setsuna launched his last two missiles and when the Blitz was engulfed in the twin explosions, the pair bugged out.

* * *

Inside the Archangel's hangar Mu dismounted from his Zero, not far was the Moebius piloted by Setsuna. After escaping from Artemis, there had been no sign of enemy pursuit – they had somehow managed to shake their pursuers. Mu approached his fellow pilot to congratulate him on job well done, only to realize it was in fact Natarle, Setsuna had already moved to the Strike, busily disarming the bomb he'd set. Turns out the rat's nest was no bluff.

"What happened to your cheek?" Natarle asked him.

"Oh... this?" Bringing his hand up to his swollen cheek courtesy of Murrue, "With all the explosions rocking the station I collided with a wall." he fibbed.

Natarle eyed him suspiciously not quite believing him as he looked her up and down appreciating how her pilot suit hugged her curves.

"Not bad." He complimented her, unfortunately his timing was poor.

Natarle was still self-conscious from being stuffed in the cramped cockpit sitting on Setsuna's lap for entire flight until they had mercifully docked with Archangel. Suffice to say her temper was still frayed.

"Well now I know how you got that mark Lieutenant, _allow me to issue you a matching one on the other side!_ " Red faced with anger she slapped him and courtesy of zero gravity he spiraled from the impact. Afterwards Natarle glided out of the hangar leaving Mu pin wheeling helplessly, her destination; her quarters for a change in cloths, she wouldn't be caught dead on the bridge wearing this.

* * *

 **\- Exia Astray 2; Armor of Diamonds? -**

On the H.O.M.E'S flight deck a showdown took place between a mobile armor and a mobile suit. The pair stared each other down, their respective weapons at the ready.

"Let's go, Kisato!" Lowe wielding a GINN sword in Red Frame called out.

In her Chimera, Kisato gritted her teeth as she held up a sheet of a ship's armored hull as makeshift shield. "Roger!"

"Hiyaaaaaaah!" Lowe charged, "Take this!" Swinging the heavy sword down in vertical slash, the blade cut into the hull plate, only to come to a sudden halt when it ran out of momentum. "Wha...?!"

Kisato could only stare at the surprisingly lackluster result.

* * *

 _'Dammit...'_ Lowe thought, looking over the hull plate, the GINN sword had only managed to gouged halfway through it.

"GINN swords use their own weight to slice into things." Kisato pointed out.

"Yeah, But it's not strong enough." Lowe admitted his disappointment at its performance. "Oh well."

 _'That's one helluva kick-ass mobile suit.'_ Lowe thought, leaning over the rail, eying the Red Frame with a look of worry. "Some other asshole might try to steal it," he muttered out loud, "I need a good weapon so that won't happen."

Not long after the Serpent Tail mercenaries had left they had encountered some pirates who had broadcasted an SOS after their ship was disabled when they themselves had a run in with the mercenaries. With a rescue fleet already on the way - as pointed out by Liam - there was no real urgency to rescue them, however Lowe in his usual (stubborn) manner insisted. He then made the mistake of giving them a tour of the ship and showing off Red Frame, which of course enticed them to do what pirates do best. They had managed to fight them off easily enough and even offered to repair the damage to ship – naturally Lowe billed them for the trouble.

"You have the beam saber." She suggested.

"I know, but..." Lowe recalled his previous encounter. "When we tangled with the pirates it really messed up their ship. I was out of control. That beam saber is dangerous! And afterwards, I realized that it burned through all my fuel. I need something that's easy on fuel but powerful. After all, Red Frame runs on batteries." 8 displayed a graph showing Red Frame's power consumption when using the beam saber.

Three days after that incident they headed to Artemis where a battle between ZAFT and Eurasia Federation had taken place resulting in the loss its defense shield. Word was that a number pirate ships – much like the one they encountered before – had been disabled while attempting to raid the now defenseless asteroid base. Curious, they moved in closer to investigate, only to once again run into Serpent Tail's now heavily armed Blue Frame. During the battle, Lowe had been captured by Gai and taken into Artemis after he lost all his weapons and was low on power. In order to escape he had to steal Gai's beam saber and reroute all his remaining power to it.

Then there was the incident at the Aktaion Industry Satellite where they'd been lured into another trap to steal Red Frame under the guise of procuring derelict mobile suits and armors, by sealing them deep within the satellite. The only way to escape was to patch Red Frame into the satellite's power grid in order to provide enough power to breach the hatch with the beam saber. Lowe billed him for his troubles as well.

"Red Frame…?" Kisato asked.

"The mobile suit." Lowe answered jerking his thumb over his shoulder. "It's red, so we call it Red Frame."

"What about the other one that the mercenaries got their hands on?"

"Blue Frame. We only have the arm for the other one but that's one's called Gold Frame."

"And the mystery suit?"

"Gundam."

"Gundam…? Why a different name for that one?"

"Because that's what's engraved on the suits armor." Lowe explained as if it were obvious.

"What about its sword, can't you repurpose the blade?" She asked.

Lowe shook his head. "Nah, according to the Liam, the blade is designed to react to whatever it is that powers the suit. Red Frames batteries aren't compatible."

"Is this really worth all the hassle?" She wondered. "Why don't we sell them? We're Junk Techs, after all."

"Absolutely... **NOT**." He refused turning away from her before whirling back to face her. "We got our hands on two awesome machines! We can't just sell them! Besides, the Professor's already called dibs on the Gundam." He silently added, _'you don't see their value?'_

8 who had mostly been observing up till now spoke up. [No need to get angry, Lowe.]

 _'Lowe is just being selfish...'_ Kisato thought with a sigh.

* * *

Later, Lowe and Kisato entered the bridge where Liam was working feverishly at his workstation.

"What's up, Liam?" Lowe asked. "Were you able to find some information?"

"I am looking right now." Liam answered, thinking out loud as his fingers flew across the keyboard. "A 'sword' for a mobile suit with low power consumption... It's difficult finding relevant information..."

"Wow! He's fast" Kisato watched in awe. _'He is a Coordinator, after all.'_ Coordinators being genetically engineered humans were endowed with enhanced physical and mental abilities. So in comparison to other Coordinators, what Liam was doing was rather ordinary, nothing spectacular.

"All this data is daunting. It's too much to sift through." Liam explained as the others looked over his shoulders. "These databanks are constantly accumulating information. You have to sort out the new data from the old and outdated archive logs. However, older data that is useless right now could be useful in the future."

Lowe understood instantly. "I see. Kinda like what we do!"

"Really?" Kisato asked not sure how keeping useless data was anything like salvaging materials.

"We look for parts, fix 'em and use 'em right?" Lowe pointed out.

"That's true." She agreed, but she still didn't see the similarities.

Liam let out a sigh, "there is just so much to look through."

"Hey Liam, isn't that gundam's armor made out of some radical material?" Lowe inquired, "Couldn't we make a sword out of that stuff?"

"It's made from an allotrope of carbon. It's highly durable and super lightweight so its cutting power would depend on how sharp the blade is, unlike the GINN sword which relies on its weight and momentum." Liam pointed out.

"An allotrope?" Kisato asked.

"Multiple forms of the same element in the same physical state," Liam explained for her. "Common allotropes of carbon that you'd be familiar with would be; graphite and of course diamonds."

"Its armor is made of diamonds?!" Both Lowe and Kisato demanded.

"Don't be ridiculous." Liam chided them. "Even if they were, it would be industrial grade which is cheap by design." The two of them deflated as Liam crushed their dreams.

"This allotrope has more in common with the artificially made fullerenes used to make carbon nanotubes," Liam continued. "However… this appears to be much more advanced process. Unfortunately the Junk Guild is a salvage company not a research institute; we can't manufacture this without outsourcing equipment and expertise from a specialized lab such as Morgenroete, or the DSSD." Cautiously he suggested, "We could approach the Earth Alliance's Aktaion Industries, or the PLANT's Asimov Design Bureau. However, given the current political climate there is significant risk that it would be weaponized, assuming of course that either of them doesn't attempt to confiscate the entire suit from us."

"Dammit!" Lowe cursed, "And you got my hopes up for a diamond edged sword."

"We can still do that, thou it's coming out of your pay Lowe." Liam offered.

"You suck!"

The hatch to the bridge hissed open and the Professor stepped through. "How's the search going, Liam?" She asked.

"I am working on it-" He replied turning away from the monitor to face her along with the others, only to be confronted by a soaking wet and virtually naked Professor. She'd just come out of the shower and was wearing nothing but her underwear and her trademark lab coat, which was so waterlogged that it was practically transparent, leaving very little to the imagination. Thankfully she was wearing her red underwear saving the trio from further awkwardness.

Turns out that Lowe isn't the only person who could bewilder Liam. "She has the worst fashion sense..." Liam said disapprovingly covering his face with the palm of his hand. Seriously just because there are only four people - if you didn't count 8 - on board is no excuse to run around the ship half naked.

Unconcerned with her state of undress she asked. "Did you look into the _Graveyard_?"

"Graveyard?" Liam couldn't recall anything from that particular source. "No..."

"Check this out." Inputting a command into the keyboard, she brought up an image that appeared to be a Frankenstein assemblage of an unknown number of ships and a small asteroid. "A Long time ago, many artisans from earth migrated to this satellite, called... Graveyard."

"I've never heard of it before." Liam admitted.

"And look what they once had..." She brought up another image.

"""Wow!""" The three exclaimed.

"What a beautiful sword!" Kisato appraised.

"The sword is called the Gerbera Straight." The 'Gerbera Straight' was a single edged katana scaled up for mobile suits.

"How did you know about this?" Liam asked, he hadn't even come close to looking over this data.

"From an informant I knew a while back." Was the only answer she gave before leaving the bridge to return to her quarters to get dressed.

"Could it be her ex-lover?" Kisato wondered. "I mean how well do we know her?"

"Who knows?" Lowe didn't really care. "We don't know anything about her past."

[Gossips] 8 accused the pair.

"All I know is, we've found our target!" Ignoring 8, Lowe announced. "Let's go to the Graveyard and find this sword!"

Liam sighed at how single minded Lowe was. "I hope this doesn't turn into a big mess!"

Kisato on the other hand was actually looking forward to going. "How exciting! I can't wait to see the sword!"

* * *

 **\- End of Chapter 4 -**

* * *

 **AN; those of you who are familiar Gundam Seed Astray and its spinoffs "R, B & X". Have noted that I've skipped whole chapters of the Astray series. The reason for this is because when I decided to incorporate the Astray series into this story, it was to act as exposition for how Exia could impact the Seed Universe in later chapters. Therefore I'm only going to gloss over the events of the Astray series and unless I say otherwise in this story, assume that all, if not most of the events played out the same as in canon.**

 **To guest reviewer; Sorry, no GN Gerbera Straight just yet. Thou I may use that concept in the latter half of the story.**

 **To guest reviewer Papercut; Even if Lowe starts it up, Exia's 'pilot identification authorization system' won't let him pilot it.**


	5. Memorial - Phase 7-8

**\- Memorial Part 1: Phase 7 -**

* * *

Upon returning to the PLANTS, the Vesalius arrived at dock four, for much needed repairs. The PLANTS were hourglass shaped industrial colonies that produced everything except their own food, which had to be imported from Earth. As a result, when war broke out between the Earth Sphere and the PLANTS, followed by the annexation of the PLANT aligned South America by the Atlantic Federation and the destruction of the Agricultural PLANT Junius Seven during the 'Bloody Valentine.' ZAFT lead a planetary invasion of North Africa to capture fertile land in order to produce the crops needed to feed the millions of Coordinators back on the PLANTS to prevent starvation.

Athrun and Rau Le Creuset departed for the PLANTS via shuttle to attend the Supreme Council's inquiry into the destruction of the neutral colony Heliopolis. Boarding the shuttle, Athrun was surprised to see his father Patrick Zala who served as the Supreme Council's National Defense Committee Chairman, the shuttle was otherwise empty.

"It goes without saying that you never saw me on this shuttle." Patrick informed them.

 _'Nice to see you too father.'_ Athrun thought.

"We understand Chairman." Rau saluted along with Athrun.

"I looked over the report you forwarded, to think that the Naturals could construct a mobile suit superior to our own, and then there is the matter regarding the pilot Athrun encountered." Patrick turned to Athrun, and asked. "Is it true? Did you encounter a Combat Coordinator?"

During the early stages of the war, the Earth Forces had supplemented their forces with Combat Coordinators who were mentally conditioned to kill other Coordinators, a menacing opponent; the GINN's superior combat ability over mobile armors was the only thing that prevented an early victory by Earth Forces.

"I saw his eyes. Even if he isn't, it's clear that the pilot has been enhanced in order to match our abilities and considering his skill in piloting a mobile suit, well trained." Athrun elaborated. Combat Coordinators' were distinguished by retinal IDs that were visible to the naked eye making them easy to identify, the glowing eyes Athrun glimpsed behind the pilot's visor while somewhat different than usual led him to assume that the Strike's pilot was such.

"Accursed Naturals." Patrick swore. "Maybe with this the moderates will see reason."

"One can only hope." Rau mused.

* * *

It had been over a week since the Archangel fled from the Eurasian satellite fortress Artemis, however their situation hadn't improved. Due to internal rivalry between Eurasia and the Atlantic Federation, instead of been offered support and supplies from their allies, their ship was instead impounded and its crew detained with the intention of stealing the Federation's secret G-Weapons project for their own faction. Only when the fortress had came under attack, that the Archangel's crew seized the opportunity to take back their ship and escape.

However they had not come out unscathed, losing their chance to resupply, the Archangel's supplies such as food and most importantly water, were dwindling and strict rationing had been enforced on the crew. Fortunately due to been undermanned when a surprise attack by ZAFT on Heliopolis had killed the majority of the ship's crew, had helped starve off the need for rationing up to this point.

Sitting in the ship's mess hall Setsuna wasn't bothered by the rationing, growing up in the deserts of the Middle East, Setsuna had learned the importance of conserving water, even when it was plentiful he used it sparingly out of habit. The rest of crew however were feeling the strain, evident by their quiet exchanges when off duty and yet still maintained discipline.

After finishing his rations, rather than go to his quarters, he made his way to the bridge instead. Ever since he presented himself as a Lieutenant, he'd been required to attend all briefings held by the Senior Officers, most held informally on the bridge due to crew shortages and while it inconvenienced him to be on call most of the time, it was to his advantage as it kept him in the loop.

Stepping into the bridge, Setsuna was greeted by Mu sitting in the copilot's chair as he, Murrue and Natarle discussed the possible routes to the Earth Alliance's moon headquarters, the other two looked up from their discussion at him, their expressions slightly guarded. Setsuna wasn't surprised, the senior officers Murrue, Natarle and Mu had a somewhat mixed reactions to the rig he had setup inside the Strike to prevent Eurasia's theft of the unit.

Mu being the most positive of the three had been impressed with Setsuna's devious ploy, Murrue however hadn't said anything but remained rather thoughtful and Natarle on the other had disapproved venomously of the unauthorized modification of the Strike's cockpit with an explosive device.

Acknowledging him, they turned back to their discussion, bringing him up to speed. Because of their dwindling supplies Murrue preferred to take the shortest route possible, however this led them through the debris belt which would hamper progress forcing them to go around. Setsuna was surprised that neither side had hidden supply bases within the debris belt like the ones Celestial Being had in numerous abandoned resource satellites, formerly used for colony construction.

However Mu had other ideas, inspired by an offhand comment made by the ship's helmsman Neumann, after explaining his intentions the ship changed course heading into the debris belt. Having nothing to contribute, Setsuna offered no opposition.

* * *

Disembarking from the shuttle Athrun and Le Creuset entered Aprilius One; the PLANTS capital, riding an elevator to the PLANT's habitable sector. On the way down, the elevator's monitor displayed a news feed recapping a press conference held by Siegel Clyne not too long ago, regarding the memorial service for the one year anniversary of the Bloody Valentine incident at remains of Junius Seven which Lacus Clyne - Athrun's fiancé - would attend in person.

Athrun was disappointed that he wouldn't be seeing Lacus after the Council's inquiry as her ship had departed for Junius Seven's final resting place in the debris belt prior to his return.

"I recall that you and Ms Clyne are engaged, is that correct?" Rau inquired.

"Yes." He replied, "It was arranged upon my return from Copernicus City three years ago."

"The son of National Defense Committee Chairman Patrick Zala and the daughter of Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne, the two of your represent a beacon of hope for the future that the soldiers of ZAFT will fight to protect."

Athrun thought he detected a hint of sarcasm in his commander's voice, even so he couldn't help but feel somewhat self-conscious about his politically arranged marriage, it wasn't that he didn't like Lacus, but the sterility situation occurring among third generation Coordinators lead to many predetermined marriages to form breeding pairs to improve their chances of successful conception, among those who wanted children.

Though among those who could not marry, nor was it discouraged, it wasn't uncommon for incompatible pairs to form couples for emotional companionship despite been prohibited from attempts to conceive children due to the poor chances of conception and in the off chance they were successful a poor future.

It wasn't lost on Athrun that his politically arranged marriage to Lacus while seen as beacon of hope, may have also drawn the ire of those who were prohibited from marrying whom they wished, and saw their marriage as someone using their family connections to subvert the system.

Arriving at the Supreme Council chambers, Athrun took a seat while waiting to be called upon to speak as the council began their inquiry, questioning his commander as Le Creuset gave his report.

* * *

Four mistrals lead by Natarle launched from the Archangel's catapults followed by Setsuna in the Aile Strike and headed out towards the wreckage, searching for derelict ships to scavenge supplies from. Mu stayed behind to protect the ship remaining on standby in the Moebius Setsuna had commandeered back at Artemis, due to the risk of the cables controlling the Zero's gunbarrels being entangled in the debris Mu had chosen the standard Moebius instead which had been rearmed with a pivoting gatling gun.

Scouring the debris belt for supplies they could salvage, they were surprised by what they found, there floating among the debris was the wreckage of one of Junius Seven's habitable zones. Setsuna grimaced at the sight, it appeared that Heliopolis wasn't the first colony to be casually destroyed, in fact it was the third, the second had been a colony called Yggdrasil based at Lagrange One which had been destroyed during a clash between ZAFT and Earth Alliance forces, further more he wasn't surprised that the destruction of Junius Seven was the cause of the war between the PLANTs and the Earth Alliance.

Despite their immense size space colonies were extremely fragile, it was great undertaking to protect them against natural hazards of space, let alone man-made ones, as such the Union and the HRL prohibited the presence of mobile suits within any colony, limiting them to guarding the external docks.

The five of them exited their vehicles to investigate on foot, while exploring they were horrified to find the bodies of the dead, floating in the vacuum. It appeared that due to the ongoing war, the PLANTs hadn't the time to retrieve their dead. Setsuna moved among them seemingly indifferent, it wasn't that it didn't bother him in fact he was furious though he didn't express it, judging by this facility all of them were civilians as he couldn't identify a single soldier among the dead and considering the size of the wreckage the death toll must of been in the hundreds of thousands. This wasn't a military action, this was a massacre.

Returning to the ship to report their findings and refit the Mistrals to extract the ice within the former habitable zone, meanwhile Mu explained to Setsuna how the destruction of Junius Seven came to be.

Naturally everyone present on the bridge was uncomfortable with the topic; senior officers usually discouraged this kind of talk seeing it as dissent amongst the rank and file and could turn nasty if one persisted to broach the issue. However Lieutenants Mu La Flaga and Murrue Ramius were the only senior officers on the ship, as Mu had been the one to broach the topic as well as having seniority over Murrue meant that there was no one to crackdown on the conversation.

For Setsuna the fact that it was the Earth Alliance that initiated the war by destroying the PLANT had soured his opinion of the group, being the kind of organization that Celestial Being was, it was type of group that they would undertake interventions against, he resolved to keep his stay as short as possible and upon leaving if he were unable to return to his world, he resolved to find likeminded individuals, and at the very least removed the twisted-ness from this world, even if it meant fighting the people on this ship.

* * *

When the Supreme Council meeting adjourned, Siegel Clyne found Athrun standing before Evidence 01 as he was leaving the Council Chambers. Evidence 01 wasn't so much a monument as such, but rather a giant fossil of a winged whale found on Jupiter by George Glenn; the first Coordinator.

As he approached he roused Athrun from his thoughts saying, "It's been a while since I last saw you."

"Chairman Clyne," Athrun responded, caught off guard he couldn't think of anything else to say.

"You finally return to the PLANTs and now my daughter is absent, honestly when are you two going to take the time from your busy schedules to see each other?" Athrun had been engaged to his daughter, Lacus Clyne – whom had recently departed for Junius Seven now located in the debris belt – for some time now.

"My apologies Chairman."

"No that's alright," he sighed the truth was that he was worried about the young man, after losing his mother in the Bloody Valentine incident, and his father growing increasingly distant as the war dragged on. He believed Athrun needed someone by his side to fill the void in his life, and he had done all he could to support the marriage despite the increasing tension between him and Athrun's father; Patrick Zala. Had the man not lost his wife in the attack on the PLANTs, Siegel believed his old friend would have been more reasonable and his outrage greatly tempered with the continued support of his wife.

Before he could say more to Athrun, he was interrupted by Athrun's commander, Rau Le Creuset accompanied by Patrick. _'Sometimes I wonder if you think I'm trying to turn him against you,'_ Siegel thought.

"Athrun Zala, the ship will be departing in seventy two hours to resume pursuit of the legged ship," Rau informed him. "In the meantime you are permitted leave to remain on the PLANTs until departure."

"Understood sir," Athrun glanced towards his father as he saluted briefly, before departing with the commander.

For a time both men stood before the monument in silence, Siegel's thoughts turned back to the results of the meeting and the rousing speech Patrick had given following Athrun report, inciting the image of Junius Seven to sway the council members to his point of view. Siegel and the other moderates on the council were feeling gravely concerned over the increasing escalation that Patrick was pushing for.

Siegel was the first to break the silence, "Patrick, just how far do you intend to further escalate the war on Earth?"

"As much as it takes to defeat the Naturals who oppose our right as the future of humanity, we cannot forgive those who would hinder us." Patrick responded.

"Future of humanity? The PLANTs future as it stands is uncertain and I'm not talking about the war, the Coordinator population is declining, especially among those of the third generation." He argued.

"The greatest minds among the PLANTs are already working on a solution; we cannot allow ourselves to devolve to the Natural's state." With those final words Patrick left.

 _'Have you forgotten Patrick, we didn't evolve, we were made.'_ Siegel shook his head at Patrick foolishness. In the beginning he and Patrick had been good friends who had formed the Zodiac Alliance twenty one years ago to deal with the continued attacks on Coordinators residing on the PLANTs but were suppressed by the sponsor nations, it took three years before they grew strong enough and reformed as ZAFT to defend against Anti-Coordinator terrorism and would be another six years until they had driven out the sponsor nations forces and attaining independence. _'All we wanted was fair treatment and the right to live peacefully, how did it come to this?'_ He wondered.

* * *

The PLANT wasn't what had they expected to find but they badly needed to replenish their water supply, and a visual scan of the wreckage confirmed the presence of abundant amounts of ice. No one was thrilled with the idea, but there were no better options, besides Setsuna was of the opinion that it would be good for the crew's conscience to get a good look at their handy work if only to discourage a repetition, hopefully.

After the Mistrals were refitted, the five of them - including Setsuna's Strike - were sent back out to begin extracting the ice.

While the Mistrals craved the ice into manageable portions that could be transported back to the Archangel, Setsuna patrolled the outskirts for a time when he stumbled upon an enemy unit. Concealing himself behind some debris Setsuna observed the scout his IFF identified as GINN Reconnaissance Type, searching the wreckage of shuttle which according to his system also originated from the PLANTs.

Judging by its behavior, it became apparent to him that it wasn't searching for the Archangel but rather something unrelated, as its shoulder mounted sensors swept the area. After a time the GINN began to move away, Setsuna let out a sigh of relief as he hadn't dared to radio a warning to the others least the scout's sensors detect the signal. Things took a turn for the worse when he and the scout spotted one of the Mistrals out in the open on a return trip and the GINN open fire on the Mistral with its sniper rifle, while the Mistral loaded up with ice had difficulties evading the shots, Setsuna quickly broke cover and opened fire on the GINN destroying it.

As the Mistral's pilot thanked him for the help, the Strike's sensor detected more enemy units closing in. "We've got incoming!" He warned.

"All Mistrals! Withdraw to the Archangel," Natarle ordered.

When Setsuna sighted the first GINN he took aim and fired, unexpectedly though the GINN suddenly changed direction and dodged it. "I missed?" Sensors alerted him that another was approaching his flank, Setsuna turned and fired, but like the first it had managed to dodge his shot. He suddenly came under fire when a third swooped in form behind; Setsuna quickly brought his shield to bear blocking the shots and returned fire with same result as last time. As the three GINNs zoomed in and out amongst the debris engaging Setsuna in a running gun battle, he had to take care when evading, to avoid collisions with nearby debris, something his opponents had little trouble with. _'This isn't working...'_ He realized.

That's when two more joined the battle, with Setsuna pinned down by the other three the first of two closed the distance between them and he saw that the GINN's rifle was different from previous ones he encountered as it mounted a sword bayonet, the GINN swung its rifle intending to disarm him by destroying his beam rifle. Knowing that his rifle wouldn't withstand the impact, Setsuna blocked it with the Strike's forearm instead.

The second one seeing that the Strike's armor was seemingly impervious it decided to target his critical components, namely his propulsion unit. This put him in a bind as he couldn't defend against the second without exposing himself to the first and the backpack didn't benefit from PS Armor, however the second GINN was hit by a volley of bullets destroying it. Pinpointing the source Setsuna saw Mu's Moebius weaving through the debris in pursuit of the remaining GINNs.

"You hanging in there Setsuna?"

"With difficulty," he replied, kicking the GINN away. "These GINNs are different from the others we've fought."

"High maneuver types, they've got high output thrusters on their backs and legs," Mu explained. "They also have a number of micro thrusters distributed throughout its exterior, they can turn on a dime."

Setsuna scrutinized the GINN as it righted itself. _'I see it's a similar design concept to the HRL's Space Type Tieren,'_ Setsuna realized. Celestial Being had great difficulty defending their ship; Ptolemy when they were ambushed by several Space Type Tierens, ironically the ship wasn't even their primary target by fact the Gundams.

"Of all the places we could've run into them, this has to be the worse." Mu pointed out as he fired on the High Maneuver types causing them to scatter. Agreeing with Mu's assessment of the situation, Setsuna figured close quarters battle would be more effective at counteracting the High Maneuver types' mobility advantage. After fending off another attack he holstering his beam-rifle and drew a beam-saber from the Aile Striker's backpack, engaging the beam, he closed the distance and knocked the High Maneuver type's rifle aside, before slashing through the exposed mobile suit's torso.

The beam made quick work of it, destroying it easily. Setsuna set off to assist Mu with the remaining three that he'd been fighting earlier, he caught sight of Mu's Moebius and the three remaining High Maneuver types just as Mu tagged a trailing High Maneuver type destroying one of its main thrusters and sending it careening into some debris destroying it. Firing a volley from his CIWS, Setsuna peppered the second, the damage while minuscule the numerous impacts knocked it off course – putting it in the same situation as the Blitz back at Artemis – and suffering the same fate as the previous High Maneuver type.

The remaining High Maneuver type retreated, weaving through the debris with Mu and Setsuna in hot pursuit. Mu cut off its escape by firing a volley from his gatling gun along its projected course forcing it divert, allowing Setsuna to close in and finish it off with the beam-saber.

"Ok. That should the last of them; let's get out of here before the mother ship reports back to ZAFT." Mu instructed, both he and Setsuna doubled back to the Archangel and departed the debris field posthaste.

* * *

 **\- Memorial Part 2: Phase 8 -**

In response to the destruction of Orb's space colony Heliopolis, a rescue fleet of Izumo class warships departed immediately to retrieve the lifeboats that were launched prior to the destruction of the colony. Having retrieved the lifeboats that made it to the rendezvous, the majority of the fleet returned to Orb's orbital station Ame-no-Mihashira (August Pillar of Heaven).

The remainder of the fleet – including the Kusanagi – continued on course to Heliopolis in search of any remaining lifeboats that were unaccounted for. On approach to Heliopolis they detected a number of distress beacons from lifeboats stranded amongst the colony's wreckage, one of these lifeboats contained Kira Yamato who had managed to find a safe haven amongst the chaos of ZAFT's raid, along with a number of factory workers.

The second had his friends Tolle, Kuzzey, Miriallia and Sai onboard. A third whose propulsion was damaged had Sai's fiancée (and Kira's crush) onboard. The final lifeboat much like Kira's contained a number of factory workers; it was also the one that Kira had deposited the girl he'd chased after. She was slightly shorter than Kira by a few centimeters and appeared to be about 15 years old with shoulder length blonde hair and amber eyes, upon seeing Kira; she gave him a most unhappy expression.

"Oh... it's you again." Kira said sheepishly when their eyes met, "funny, who would've thought we'd end up on the same ship."

She scowled at him, "that's my line. Seriously, what were you thinking stuffing me into that cramped lifeboat?"

"I was thinking of getting you someplace safe obviously," he pointed out.

The girl looked away embarrassed, "thank you... for helping me." Before she could say more she was interrupted by the sound of people approaching.

"Hey, Kira!" Tolle called out to him, followed by two others, "there you are." Then they noticed the person Kira was talking to, "who's your friend?"

"Oh, this is the girl I chased after when we got split up," Kira explained, turning back to the girl he said. "Now that I think of it, I never got your name."

"Smooth move Kira," Tolle joked, standing next to him Miriallia giggled.

"It's Cagalli," she offered.

"I'm Tolle, this is my girlfriend Miriallia, this guy over here is Kuzzey and you've already met Kira." Tolle gestured to each of them in turn as he introduced them.

Recognizing her Kuzzey spoke up, "hey I remember you, weren't you the professor's guest who was waiting in the lab."

"Um, Kuzzey, wasn't the professor's guest a guy?" Tolle asked as Cagalli started to fume.

"No it was her," Kira confirmed. "Though I have to admit that I also thought she was a guy at first."

With a growl Cagalli stamped painfully onto Kira's foot, resulting in a painful yelp from Kira, Miriallia shook her head at his tactlessness.

"Anyway why are you three here?" Kira grimaced.

"We came to tell you that they've found Flay on one of the Lifeboats." Miriallia told him, since she and Flay were acquainted.

"Really!?" Kira asked, "Is she ok?"

"Yeah she is with Sai now." Kuzzey answered tactlessly, of the trio Kuzzey wasn't aware of Kira's crush on flay.

"I see," Kira said despondently.

Seeing his reaction Cagalli asked, "What's up with him?"

"Oh, Kira has a huge crush on Flay," Miriallia whispered. "But the thing is that Flay is engaged to our friend Sai, not to mention it's completely one sided."

"Wait, he has a crush on his friend's fiancée?" Cagalli reiterated. "What an idiot. Those things never end well."

"He's hopeless isn't he?" Miriallia agreed.

Over hearing them Tolle joked, "you always want what you can't have."

Miriallia ground the heel of the shoe into his foot while scolding him, "Like the woman whose giant rack you admiring a few days ago." Some distance away on the Archangel, Murrue suddenly sneezed.

When she was done, Miriallia let out a sigh, "anyway he could do a lot better than Flay."

"Maybe that's why he chased after her, after all she's kind of cute, if somewhat ill tempered" Tolle jerked his thumb towards Cagalli. This time it was Cagalli who ground her heel into his remaining uninjured foot.

* * *

After retrieving the last of the lifeboats and confirming the safe recovery of the princess, the Izumo class battleship Kusanagi was now underway, their destination Ame-no-Mihashira.

"Sir, we've received a message via the emergency channel." The comm.'s officer informed the Captain.

"From who?"

"The Junk Guild, sir."

"The Junk Guild?" The Captain wondered out loud, the Junk Guild were a neutral organization that specialized in salvage and construction work. "What's the message?"

"A confrontation has taken place between the OMNI enforcers and a PLANT civilian shuttle within the debris belt," the officer continued reading. "The OMNI enforcers have been repelled, and the civilian shuttle is stranded, the Junk Guild's life support doesn't have the capacity to take on lifeboats."

"Typical Junk Techs, maximizing storage capacity for raw materials, while only running enough life support to maintain a skeleton crew." The Captain sighed as he contemplated the message before asking, "Location?"

"There in proximity to Junius Seven's wreckage, sir."

"Blast!" The Captain swore startling the bridge crew, "The PLANTs just recently dispatched a delegation to inspect Junius Seven's wreckage in preparation for the one year anniversary of the Bloody Valentine." He explained.

It dawned on the bridge crew what had happened. "That's right," was the Captain's response to their dismay, he continued, "the bloody enforcers jumped the delegation, haven't they riled up the PLANTs enough as it is already! Navigation, set a course to intercept Junius Seven in the debris belt, we'll assume that a rescue team from the PLANTs is also in route until we know otherwise." He ordered.

"Yes sir."

"Comm.'s, inform the rest of crew. Helmsman, take us in."

"Aye sir."

* * *

Back at the PLANTs, Athrun returned to dock 4 early in preparation to board the Vesalius. Originally it would of being another thirty six hours before they were to depart, but for some reason they were leaving early, though Athrun had his suspicions as to the reason.

Approaching the airlock leading to the ship Athrun saw his Commander and his father waiting. He saluted, "Athrun Zala, reporting for duty sir."

Rau returned his salute, "Good to have you back. We'll be departing shortly."

"Sir, is our departure related to the disappearance to the Silverwind?" He asked, not long after receiving his orders, there had been a news report regarding the sudden disappearance of Silverwind and its passengers, specifically Lacus. "We haven't received any confirmation that Lacus is actually missing."

"We had already dispatched a search party consisting of one Reconnaissance GINN and five High Maneuver types, none of them have returned," Patrick interjected. Athrun's eyes widened with shock at loss of so many GINNs, Patrick continued. "Nevertheless you and the Vesalius will be taking over the search, everyone knows that the two of you are engaged and therefore it would be expected that you would go look for her."

"Understood sir," he said while thinking, _'your only pushing for this because you need to present the image that you and the Supreme Chairman are on good terms, when in fact it's the opposite, under normal circumstances you would've told me to let others worry about it and that I should focus on my duties.'_

When his father returned to the shuttle Athrun muttered out loud, "So he expects me to come back as hero."

"Or shedding tears of grief." Rau added his expression surprisingly neutral. Athrun was quickly beginning to tire of being a playing piece on the political board.

* * *

Back on the Kusanagi in the ship's mess hall, Kira and his friends along with Cagalli were eating.

"So, I wonder what's taking us so long to get back to the homeland." Tolle wondered while picking at his food.

"Earlier I overheard the crew talking about diverting their course to investigate a distress signal or something." Cagalli offered, not long after her rescue she had been brought before the Captain.

"A distress signal? Did someone else get attacked by ZAFT too?" Kuzzey asked concerned.

"No, from what I've heard this time it was the OMNI enforcers attacking a civilian shuttle." She answered.

"What!?" Tolle exclaimed, "First ZAFT attacks Heliopolis and now the Earth Forces are attacking shuttles, has the world gone insane?"

Cagalli shared a cautious glance with Kira, while she agreed with Tolle sentiments, only she and Kira knew of the Earth Forces presence on Heliopolis along with the prototype mobile weapons. The pair however weren't aware of the others' encounter with the Strike and its occupants.

"Regardless it looks like it will be awhile longer before we get home." Miriallia interjected to divert Tolle from his current topic.

* * *

When the ship was in proximity to Junius Seven the crew immediately scanned the area for signs of battle that had been reported by the Junk Guild.

"Captain, sensors have confirmed the wreckage of one civilian shuttle originating from the PLANTs as well as six other wrecks confirmed to be ZAFT GINNs sir." The sensor operator reported.

"Put it on screen." The Captain commanded, analyzing the image he remarked, "That can't be right, there's not enough mobile armor wrecks to account for the GINNs destruction. There should be at least three to five times the number wrecks"

"Sir, damage analysis of the GINNs wrecks is indicative of OMNI enforcer weaponry."

"An ambush?" He wondered.

"Sir! I've detected a distress signal." Reported the comm.'s officer.

"Dispatch a squadron of Mistrals to retrieve it." He ordered.

"Aye sir. launching Mistrals."

* * *

Once the life pod was retrieved, the Kusanagi was once again underway for the Ame-no-Mihashira. Meanwhile the Captain and his XO went down to the hangar where the ship's engineers were preparing to open the life pod. When they arrived he gave the order, "open it."

"Yes sir," manipulating the pod's control panel it soon unsealed releasing its occupant.

"Haro! Haro!" Greeted a pink spherical ball shaped robot, its two circular panels on the upper dome flapping about with utter abandon as it exited the pod.

The hangar crew stared in disbelief as it flew/floated by, greeting each crewman in passing.

"That's what we saved?" Remarked one crewman.

"Is it some kind of toy?" Asked another.

They watched as it continued its haphazard flight through the hangar until they were roused by a girl's voice, "thank you for saving me."

Everyone turned back to the pod to see a young girl with long pink hair float out of the escape pod, noticing their uniforms the girl sudden became alarmed, "oh my, this isn't a ZAFT ship."

"My, oh my." Haro commented.

* * *

Some time later Kira was making his way to the ship's mess hall from his quarters, there was little for the refugees to do, if they weren't eating, they were resting in their assigned quarters. As such the past few days had been rather monotonous with nothing to do. _'Unless of course you have a girlfriend to distract you, like Tolle, or Sai,'_ Kira thought enviously.

Kira had tried making small talk with Cagalli but she kept going hot and cold on him. At first she kept to herself, but when she opened up to him, he quickly learned that she was considerate and direct yet at times overbearing and quick to anger. It was rocky at first but the two got along fine, however she didn't seem interested in been more than acquaintances with him, as such the battle for first base was looking like a lost cause.

He was suddenly roused from his musing by a synthesized voice.

"Haro! Haro!" He looked up in time to catch a glimpse of a pink sphere hurtling right at him, just before it collided with his face. *BAM!* the world exploded into a sea of stars.

"Oh dear! Are you ok?" When his vision cleared he was greeted by the sight of the most beautiful pinkette whose eyes were lovely blue-green orbs.

"Yeah, I think I'm ok," he stammered dumbstruck.

"I'm sorry," she apologized. "Mr. Pink loves to go for walks, but he's very excitable and tends to rush."

"My, oh my!" Chattered the pink missile. "Nice to meet you!"

 _'That's one hell of a greeting,'_ Kira thought, turning back to the girl he realized, "I don't recall seeing you on the ship before."

"Oh I just arrived not too long ago," she told him. "My name is Lacus Clyne."

 _'She must be reason we changed course,'_ he concluded before introducing himself. "I'm Kira Yamato."

Suddenly Lacus' stomach growled, "oh my," embarrassed she blushed. "I'm sorry, I was on my way to get something to eat and I'm really famished. All there was to eat were emergency rations and they don't taste too good."

Kira understood what she meant, but at least she didn't have to share with other people, keen to get to know her better, he offered to take her to the mess hall.

* * *

"Captain, are you sure it is wise to allow her to roam the ship unescorted?" Inquired the XO.

"There's no cause for concern, she presents no risk to either the ship or those on board. Had this been an OMNI enforcer's ship your inquiry would have been understandable. But we're not, our country is neutral and on top of that she's a civilian." The Captain answered before adding, "And unlike the Federation we thankfully don't have to worry about extremists factions within our own ranks acting on their own virulence. She's perfectly safe on this ship."

* * *

By the time the pair reached the mess hall, Kira was now sporting an impressive lump on his head, due to his head on collision with Mr. Pink, all in all things weren't too bad accompanying Lacus to the mess hall, who was chatty and upbeat.

Upon entering the mess hall Kira found that all his friends including Flay and Cagalli were all eating at the same table. Looking up from his food Tolle spotted them. "A new girl Kira? What, the blonde tsundere wasn't enough for you?" Tolle jested. Cagalli kicked him from under the table and Tolle on reflex banged his knee against the tabletop. Everyone looked up from their food towards the pair, when Kira briefly met Cagalli's gaze she turned back to her food. She'd gone cold on him again.

When he and Lacus returned with their meals the only seats available were next to Cagalli, not wanting to appear as if he was avoiding her, he seated himself between her and Lacus, much to the amusement of Tolle and Miriallia. Overly conscious of their attention and of the girls to either side of him, things were beginning to feel awkward.

"So who's your new friend?" Kuzzey asked him amused.

"Oh, this is Lacus Clyne," when he introduced her she gave a tiny wave before digging into her food. "She's from the shuttle incident earlier."

"You mean she's from the PLANTs." Tolle clarified.

Lacus nodded, "it's very nice to meet you."

"The PLANTs!?" Flay cried out, "you mean you're a Coordinator!" Flay; Sai's fiancée had long red hair and pale blue eyes. So far Cagalli had to admit she was pretty, but on the personality front she was far from impressed.

"Ah Flay, I think that goes without saying." Tolle pointed out.

"What's wrong?" Sai asked concerned with her strange reaction to the new arrival.

"What's wrong? What's wrong is that there's a Coordinator roaming the ship without a guard!"

"Why would she need a guard?" Miriallia asked.

"Why?" Flay repeated as if it were obvious, "have you forgotten that we were attacked by ZAFT!"

Everyone turned to look at Lacus who tilted her head to the side before responding, "It's true that I'm a Coordinator, but I'm not a member of the military."

"Even if that's the case, everyone knows that Coordinators are stronger with faster reflexes than normal people, what if she attacks me." Flay argued.

"I don't think that'll be a problem," Cagalli cut in. "A number of this ship's crew are also Coordinators, if she _attacked_ you, they'll have no trouble restraining her. So I'm afraid you're quite safe from her."

To the groups surprise Flay instead of being reassured, panicked further. "You mean there are more Coordinators on the ship?"

"Yeah, I'd wager that a number of the refugees are also Coordinators." Cagalli admitted as Flay became rather pale. Heedless she continued, "But surely you knew that? After all every resident in Orb knows that there are Coordinators among the population." Looking around Flay saw that everyone at the table except for Lacus nodded in consensus of this basic fact.

"Actually, I'm also a Coordinator," Kira admitted much to everyone's surprise and Lacus' delight, Flay's expression turned fearful; however to his relief most his friends seemed to accept it though somewhat surprised.

Feeling isolated Flay fled from the mess hall, Sai stood to follow, "I better check on her."

A moment pasted until Kuzzey changed the topic, "So Kira, what happened to you?"

Now that he pointed it out Kira injury, everyone suddenly seemed to notice, Cagalli glanced from Kira to Lacus and back again before asking, "You weren't trying any funny business were you?"

"No! Nothing like that at all!" Waving his arms defensively in front of him – much to the amusement of Tolle and Miriallia – he tried to explain, "it was accident, honest."

"Indeed, in all the excitement Mr. Pink was in a bit of rush." Lacus interjected.

""Mr. Pink?"" They wondered in unison, suddenly a pink sphere leapt onto the table startling everyone.

"I don't like it! I don't _like_ it!" The Haro declared.

Learning close to examine it Tolle noted, "Well, this little guy sure has a lot of personality."

"Whatever, whatever." The Haro brushed him off.

Tolle was incensed, "hey!" Next to him Miriallia giggled at her boyfriend's evident dismissal.

"Anyway." Cagalli interrupted, "you should stop by the ship's infirmary later and have that lump looked at." She playfully prodded it with a delicate finger.

"Yeah, I'll get around to that." Kira assured her with a wince, though he blushed slightly. Despite the pain, Kira appreciated the affectionate gesture.

After that was settled the conversation shifted to Lacus who told her tale of how she wound up stranded in the debris belt, "I was a part of a delegation sent to inspect the ruins of Junius Seven in preparation for the one year anniversary of the Bloody Valentine, to commemorate the lives lost when it was destroyed. In route we encountered an Earth forces patrol, normally being a civilian vessel this wouldn't have been a problem. But for some reason the commander of this patrol was very agitated and insisted that our ship submit itself to inspection. My ship's crew protested this and the Earth forces began attacking, that's when the crew started moving me towards the life pods. Suddenly there was this loud voice over the radio and an altercation took place between the patrol and an unknown third party."

"Someone intervened?" Miriallia asked incredulous only a few groups would openly oppose the OMNI enforcers, "what happened next?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, after that I was placed in the life pod and ejected from the ship and sometime later I was rescued by this ship." She concluded the end of her tale.

"You must be someone important to be a part of such a delegation." Kuzzey commented, this prompted Cagalli's memory.

"Wait, you said your name was Clyne right?" She inquired, "You wouldn't happen to be related to the PLANTs Supreme Council Chairman Siegel Clyne would you?"

"Why yes, he's my father." Lacus admitted as everyone at the table gaped at her. "Do you know him?"

Ignoring her question Cagalli added, "That would also make you the PLANTs number one idol singer."

Upon digesting that fact Tolle turned to Kira and said, "Well Kira, if there's one thing I have to hand to you is that you aim high." Kira wasn't sure how to respond but in the end it wasn't necessary when Cagalli kicked Tolle's other shin resulting in repeat of the first instance.

Miriallia sighed, "I can see you'll be going home in a wheelchair Tolle."

"No kidding, hey! Do you have a grudge against my legs or something!?" He demanded of Cagalli.

She responded with a growl, "If you're not careful I'll extend my grudge to your third leg as well."

Tolle moved to shield his privates, "please don't! I need that."

Dismissing him from her thoughts, she turned back to the subject at hand. _'Did the Earth forces know she was onboard?'_ She wondered, _'if so that would explain how they could justify such a raid on a civilian shuttle._ '

Regardless she was glad the attempt had failed, the PLANTs were already in a uproar over the Bloody Valentine that took place less than a year ago and she rather not see their reaction should anything untoward happen to the girl.

* * *

Elsewhere on the ship, Sai found Flay hiding in her bunk, she was huddled in a ball, "Flay, are you ok?"

"I'm scared," she stuttered. "No one said there would be Coordinators in Orb."

"Not even your father?" Sai asked confused at how someone can be misinformed like that. "It's no secret that there are Coordinators in Orb, in fact you'll find them in all the neutral zones," he pointed out. "Both the PLANTs and the Federation are keenly aware of it, and as the Vice Foreign Minister your father especially would've known."

When she looked up at him, her expression shifted from disbelief to one of betrayal, "you're telling me that daddy knew and he sent me anyway without telling me?"

Taken aback by her reaction he answered, "It seems that way." As he tried to comfort her, Sai had to wonder if her father was even aware of her fear of Coordinators and if he did, why did send to her Orb in the first place.

* * *

On the Archangel's bridge, Romero Pal was monitoring communications when he picked up a signal.

"Captain Ramius! A message from the 8th fleet." He notified her, "Admiral Halberton is requesting a rendezvous with their forces."

"Finally some good news." Mu said elated as the bridge crew cheered.

"Romero, relay our position to the fleet and arrange for co-ordinates for rendezvous." Murrue ordered.

"Aye Captain." Romero acknowledged.

* * *

On the Vesalius, they too had also detected the 8th fleets signal. "Found you," Rau murmured, "Captain Ades, divert our course for intercept. We won't let the legged ship escape this time."

* * *

In the Archangel's hangar, Setsuna who had been assisting Murdoch in maintaining the Strike looked up suddenly when he felt a strange sensation that he could only describe as malicious intent, unable to locate the source he went back to work albeit with greater urgency.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 5**

* * *

 **AN: Lacus has at long last made her offical debut in Exia Displaced. As you have seen the circumstances are similar to canon. For the benefit of those who haven't read the Astray series, the unknown third party mentioned by Lacus who loudly intervened is Lowe Gear.  
**

 **The mention of Ame-no-Mihashira(August Pillar of Heaven) is also a reference to Astray; It's an anchor satelitte for an incomplete orbital elevator, owned by the Sahaku's who are in charge of Orb's Astray project.  
**

 **A guest reviewer has recently suggested fully incorporating the Astray spin-offs into the story, previously I've mentioned my reasoning for skipping segments so as not to rehash events that haven't diverged from canon as influenced by the current plot - thou I have provided a brief summary of events between those segments. Those of you who are familiar with the Astray spin-offs have been satisfied with this, henceforth I pitch this question to those who aren't; Do you think I should rehash events in the spin-offs such as Lowe's attempted rescue of Lacus' shuttle as mentioned above, or are fine with me skipping them?**

 **Let me know in a review or pm.**


	6. Escort Fleet - Phase 9-10

**\- Escort Fleet – Phase 9 & 10 –**

* * *

After extracting enough water from the debris belt, the Archangel continued its flight to the moon. Along the way, they were hailed by a friendly ship; the 'Montgomery,' a Nelson class battleship from the 8th fleet.

"This is the Montgomery; Admiral Halberton congratulates you on making it this far under these precarious conditions." The Captain of the Montgomery greeted them, "Once we meet up at the rendezvous your ship will be under my command, and we'll proceed to Luna HQ, Montgomery out."

The bridge crew all breathed a collective sigh of relief. In the hangar Petty Officer Murdoch assisted Setsuna in calibrating the Strike's systems; they had been working tirelessly ever since they received word that help was coming. Murdoch wasn't sure why Setsuna was in such a hurry as they adjusted the mechanics and tweaked the Strike's programming, not that he was complaining, especially when they were pitting it against its compatriots that have been optimized by ZAFT programming.

* * *

On the Vesalius, Commander Le Creuset briefed his pilots – including Athrun – in the ship's CIC located behind the bridge.

"Not too long ago, we picked up a transmission from an Earth Forces fleet preparing to rendezvous with legged ship, no doubt to resupply and escort it." He informed them, "We cannot allow the two to meet, and therefore we will launch a preemptive strike against the fleet."

"But sir," Athrun interjected, "Our mission-"

"I am well aware that our search for Miss Clyne takes priority Athrun. However in order to meet with this fleet, the legged ship would've had to pass through the debris belt here," Rau pointed out the location on the table display, "This is where we lost contact with last team sent to search for Miss Clyne's whereabouts, I doubt I have to explain to you what likely had happened to them." He gave both Athrun and the other piloted a moment to absorb the implications. "Nevertheless. If the legged ship has anything to do with their disappearance, may perhaps even captured Miss Clyne themselves. Either way it is all the more reason to intercept this fleet before they link up."

Having convinced Athrun of the need to strike first, the three pilots proceeded to the hanger to prep their mobile suits.

* * *

On the Archangel.

"Captain, radar has identified ships 'Montgomery,' 'Bernard' and 'Law' in route to the rendezvous." Petty officer Pal informed Murrue. "Wait a second, radio interference increasing. It's an N-Jammer!"

"Captain! Message from the Montgomery, they are cancelling the rendezvous, orders are to withdraw from the area." Natarle informed her from the CIC.

"Ma'am! Thermal imaging has come through, it appears to be a battle," Petty officer Tonomura alerted her. "ID-ing three enemy units. GINNs, wait we have a positive ID on X303 Aegis!"

"Le Creuset, dogging our heel's once again." Murrue murmured. She turned to Natarle. "There's no guarantee that we'll escape, but if we jump in now, the combined firepower of the Archangel and the escort fleet might be enough to drive them off."

Natarle quickly ran through their options; on the one hand, no one ship could outrun a Nazca, not even the Archangel. On the other hand, the OMNI Enforcers had always relied on sheer numbers to make up the difference in battle strength; as such they only had one viable option. Looking back to Murrue she nodded her agreement.

"In that case, bring all hands to level one battle-stations, have the Strike and the Zero prepped for launch." She ordered.

* * *

In the hanger, as Lieutenant La Flaga raced to his Zero, Setsuna was already in the Strike's cockpit. Due to the unease he had been feeling lately, he'd taken a power nap in the Strike's cockpit, as such he was ready to deploy at a moment's notice. To get them to the battle faster, the Archangel's magnetic catapult were ramped up to emergency war power to maximize their velocity upon launch.

Equipped with the Aile Striker pack, he and La Flaga were launched one after the other. As they zoomed towards the battle one of the ships exploded.

"Damn!" Mu swore, "We just lost the 'Bernard.'"

The Strike's sensors informed Setsuna that the Aegis was now moving to intercept him as the GINNs continued to exchange fire with the fleet, inflicting significant battle damage, he quickly came to a decision and radioed the Archangel. "Strike to Archangel, I don't suppose you could to keep the Aegis busy while me and La Flaga engage the GINNs?"

Murrue responded to his call, "The GINNs? But the Aegis is-"

Setsuna cut her off, "The most dangerous, I am aware. But if I waste time fighting him, the _three_ GINNs will tear the fleet apart; La Flaga can only engage one at a time."

Murrue considered it for a split second. "Understood, we'll engage the Aegis. Gottfrieds one and two, target the Aegis. Natarle coordinate the Valiants and missiles to pin down the Nazca." The transmission terminated after that.

* * *

The moment the Aegis' enhanced sensors detected the strike, Athrun turned to meet it head on using the Aegis' cruise mode to both close the distance at speed and deploy heavy weapons as well. As the only mobile suit equipped with weapons effective against Phase Shift armor, it was his role to engage the Strike should it appear in this battle, leaving the GINNs with their conventional weapons to deal with the fleet.

With the Strike approaching faster than expected, Athrun intended to engage it with the Scylla cannon first. But before he was in range, his system warned that he was been targeted. Yanking hard on the stick, he managed to alter his course enough to avoid been blasted by the legged ship.

Athrun swore as the Strike and a mobile armor sped past him. He turned pursue, but another warning sent him into evasive maneuvers to avoid another twin blast of green death. He swore once more, realizing that at the speed they were traveling they would quickly reach the fleet and there was nothing he could do to stop them.

* * *

Back on the Archangel, Murrue watched as the Gottfrieds alternated fire against the Aegis, being anti-ship cannons they were ill suited to shooting down something as small and nimble a target such as the Aegis. All they could hope for was to keep it busy till Setsuna could relieve them.

Behind and below her in the CIC, Natarle oversaw their engagement with the Nazca. At the moment because they were simultaneously engaging two targets at once she could only bring one of the two Valiants in addition to the ship's anti-ship missiles to bear. She would have preferred to bring the entire ship's arsenal against the Nazca, but understood the need to engage the Aegis so the Lieutenants could take the heat off the escort fleet.

"Load missile tubes seven through twelve with sledgehammers, aim port Valiant. Fire!" She too was performing a similar role herself, with the objective of preventing the Nazca from firing upon the escort fleet with its twin heavy beam cannons.

* * *

On the Vesalius, Le Creuset frowned as Captain Ades sent the ship once again through another series of evasive maneuvers to avoid another volley from the legged ship. _'It would seem that they've come baring all their teeth and claws,'_ he mused.

"We've lost one of the GINNs and the other has taken damage!" One of the bridge crew informed them.

"And Athrun?" He inquired.

"He's pinned down by the legged ship." The crewman informed him.

The ship bucked as another missile came a little too close for comfort. "Tch, I'm heading out," He informed Ades, "Ready our remaining mobile suits for sortie." As he departed for the hanger he murmured, "If you want something done right do it yourself."

* * *

On the Montgomery, the Captain let out a sigh of relief as the GINN attacking the Law was swiftly destroyed. Not long after, the Strike and Zero boxed in the second, when that one was also destroyed, one of the bridge crew shouted a warning, "Three mobile suits have launched from enemy vessel! The Strike and the Zero are now moving to intercept, orders sir?"

"Ready missiles, contact the Archangel and Law have them synchronize their strikes with ours against the Nazca. The Law will then follow up with a torpedo run."

* * *

Following the destruction of the second GINN, Setsuna was about to relieve the Archangel and engage the Aegis, when they contacted him via radio.

"Three mobile suits, two GINNs and one CGUE have sortie from the Nazca and are heading towards the escort fleet. The Archangel will continue to engage the Aegis while you two intercept them." Natarle informed them, "We'll also be launching consecutive strikes against the Nazca alongside the Montgomery and Law. Archangel out."

Both Setsuna and La Flaga acknowledged their ordered and moved to intercept. "A CGUE huh... Le Creuset must want another crack at us. Watch yourself Setsuna, he's cunning and ruthless." Mu warned.

He recalled the last CGUE he encountered back at Heliopolis. "We should take out his wingmen first," he suggested.

"Good idea," Mu agreed, "Let's split up and hit the flanks."

"Roger" The two separated before accelerating. When they closed on their targets they attacked at roughly the same time. Setsuna's GINN went down with one shot through its torso from his beam rifle. Mu's multi-directional attack battered the second but it managed to pull away as Le Creuset's CGUE opened fire on Mu.

Reacting quickly Setsuna fired upon Le Creuset, forcing him to break off his attack. "Sorry Setsuna, hang in there until I take care of this guy." Mu apologized as he continued after the wounded GINN; Rau was that formidable on his own that it was paramount that they removed his escort from the battle as quickly as was convenient.

Coming under fire from the CGUE, he took care to avoid taking hits and when he couldn't, deflected them with his shield. While the CGUE's armaments were ineffective against PS armor the impacts were still felt, in sufficient volume they could temporarily overwhelm him as he and Mu had demonstrated against the Blitz back at Artemis.

Also the PS armor's protection didn't extend to his beam rifle and striker pack; if he wasn't careful he could lose his weapon or have his mobility impeded. Both of which Rau was maneuvering to get a shot at, demonstrating that he had learned from his previous encounter. Malice oozed from Rau's CGUE, enough to make Setsuna feel slightly ill, but despite the unease it caused him it came with unexpected benefits. For one he had a sense of his adversary's intentions which helped him anticipate when his opponent was launching an attack or merely a feint, which made it easier to minimize damage to his external equipment though a number of hits still landed from time to time as they continued to dart about the battlefield exchanging fire.

* * *

Back on the Vesalius, Captain Ades had his own problems to deal with as the Earth Forces' ships launched a barrage of missiles, all of which were closing on his ship as the 'incoming missile' alarm blared with earnest.

"Intercept!" He ordered. When the crew engaged the ICWS system, the targeting computers gleefully opened up on the target rich environment within their firing envelopes.

Unfortunately Captain Ades didn't share their enthusiasm as he ordered for the N-Jammers to be maxed out, while launching droves of decoy flares in the hope of spoofing as many of the missiles' guidance systems as possible. Those that succeeded still detonated hair-raisingly close to the ship.

"Captain! The remaining Drak-class has launched torpedoes."

"Evade!" He ordered, as the helmsman steered them out of the torpedoes' path, they must of being armed with proximity fuses as the ship rocked when they exploded alongside the ship.

"Report!" He demanded.

"Ship had sustained minor damage."

"Captain, we've lost our remaining GINN, the commander and Athrun are the only ones left."

"Signal a retreat and begin withdrawal from the area," He ordered.

* * *

After ZAFT's remaining mobile suits broke off when the Nazca began its retreat, the Archangel formed up with what was left of escort fleet. On the bridge Murrue spoke with the Captain of the Montgomery over the comm. "My apologies for disobeying your order to cancel the rendezvous," She said, "However we didn't believe that we could outrun the Nazca once it was done with your fleet."

"Indeed, I ought to reprimand you Captain, However..." His stern expression softened, "had you not, my fleet would've been annihilated and you would've had six mobile suits and a Nazca bearing down on you against both your ship and two mobile units. Frankly Captain, this was the best outcome either of us could've hoped for, and that's exactly what I'll tell Rear Admiral Halberton."

"How is the escort fleet holding up?" She asked.

He grimaced, "I won't lie Captain. We're beat to hell. Both the Montgomery and the Law have sustained significant damage from the GINNs. We've lost our entire compliment of Moebiuses, along with the escort ship Bernard. Despite outnumbering the enemy, this only proves just how badly we need even one of those prototypes.

"Regardless of the state of our fleet, we'll continue our mission and escort you back to Luna as best as we can. Though honestly, I think we're just slowing you down." He informed her.

* * *

 **\- Exia Astray Part 3 – Hero Killer –**

In the vacuum of space, Lowe Gear had finally managed to catch up with drifting high speed shuttle.

A quick analysis by 8 had determined it most likely be an experimental warship, however the ship's data logs had been wiped, so there was no way to identify either its owner or origin.

"Hmmm… Maybe it lost control in the middle of a test flight. In any case it's still an amazing find!" It gave Lowe a feeling of nostalgia. "Remember how I found you 8? You were drifting all alone in a deserted ship… just like this."

[Is that so?] 8 queried.

Indeed the conditions under which he had discovered 8 were much like when he had chased down this aimless test ship.

Quite some time ago he had come across what appeared to be a small derelict automated cargo hauler. Unfortunately there was no sign of its cargo and the hauler had been gutted, leaving it virtually unsalvageable.

The only thing he was able to salvage was 8's system from the automated bridge which had somehow been spared the fate of the rest of the ship. Even so, not even 8 came out unscathed, many of 8's memory storage had been damaged or corrupted and aside from some intriguing programming the Professor at the time could not narrow down 8 origins.

In the meantime 8 was installed into a portable terminal and given to Lowe as a digital assistant, though 8 spent most its time trying to keep him out of trouble, naturally Lowe frequently ignored its advice.

Regardless the two continued to work well together through various jobs, lately however they've been running into a series of mysteries that seemed to be weaving a complex web around the mysterious mobile suits they recovered from Heliopolis.

* * *

Upon returning to the ship, Lowe entered the ship's bridge where the Professor, Liam and Kisato were waiting.

"Thanks for picking me up!"

"Dammit Lowe! Why do you always go out further than you should?" Kisato admonished him. "You were out of sensor range for a long time! I thought we'd lost you!"

"It wasn't my fault! I was chasing a high speed vessel!" He said brushing aside her concern as he casually tossed 8 so as to high five the Professor in the same movement, to which 8 protested.

[Don't throw me!]

"Anyway, everyone I've got some good news," the Professor announced. "I was able to unlock some of the mystery behind the power plant, which came with our new friend in the cargo hold." She was referring to the mobile suit that Lowe had dubbed GUNDAM.

"I've identified a critical component to the suits reactor," she paused for dramatic effect. "Monopoles."

Liam's expression was incredulous, while Lowe and Kisato's however were mostly perplexed. "Huh?" They both uttered.

Kisato stated the obvious. "Monopoles, you mean, like magnetic poles right?"

Lowe surprisingly looked a little more thoughtful. "Is this like that 'trying to separate the North and South magnetic poles' by cutting a magnet in half?"

"Not quite, the 'magnet' you're describing is a dipole consisting of two equal and opposite point charges; North and South. Even if you were to cut it in half, it's impossible to separate them from each other as each piece would still have a North and South no matter how many times you divide them. This is because magnetic fields generated by conventional magnets aren't caused by Monopoles as they can't be created by normal matter." Liam pointed out. "A Monopole only has one magnetic pole; a North, or a South, never both. However, there is no known experimental or observational evidence that magnetic monopoles exist."

"Liam's right, there aren't, till now that is." The Professor nodded. "The only place in the solar system where magnetic monopoles occurs naturally is deep within the cores of the two gas giants; Jupiter and Saturn where hydrogen molecules break down under the heat and pressure into individual atoms, creating a layer of electrically conducting liquid metal, thus generating the gas giants powerful magnetic fields and also traps highly energetic particles... Sounds like a good place to look for monopoles don't you think."

"So someone figured out how to make theses monopoles?" Lowe pondered out loud.

"No Lowe, even with the combined resources and funds of the PLANTs and the Earth Sphere creating them from scratch is an energy intensive process, the costs to create a single monopole would be astronomical." The Professor explained.

Though she wasn't surprised that he came to that conclusion. Lowe loved an engineering challenge more than profit. Not that she could talk as her friend Erica often told her; _'while I have no doubt that you would succeed. There is no organization, or nation whom you could convince to pay for such an overly ambitious project that would result in nothing more than a scientific boondoggle.'_

"Frankly Lowe," the Professor continued. "It would be cheaper to fly a ship to Jupiter and build the components on site, than fly it back to Earth."

"Fly to Jupiter…?" Kisato mused, "Oh! So George Glenn must of built it." No one was surprised that she came to that conclusion as it was well known that she was a huge fan of George Glenn.

"Sorry to burst your bubble Kisato, but many of the reactor's oldest components predate the Tsiolkovsky's expedition flight to Jupiter by over a hundred years." The Professor gently informed her. The Tsiolkovsky was the research vessel designed by George Glenn and flown to Jupiter where the fossil 'Evidence 01' was discovered. Kisato was understandably dejected.

"Though she might not be too far off the mark." Liam interjected. "It possible that he may have found it, perhaps from a derelict ship sent years before."

"But if he brought it back, why didn't he disclose it along with Evidence 01?" Lowe pointed out perplexed.

"Quite the quandary huh." The Professor mused. Liam agreed, every time they thought they stumbled across the answer they only found more questions.

* * *

Space Colony; Liteiria.

After both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance determined Liteiria was strategically irrelevant, it was able to declare itself a neutral colony. Eventually, it became a haven for people looking to escape the chaos of war.

That was until the neutral colony of Heliopolis got scraped during a brief scuffle between ZAFT and the Earth Alliance. The colonists decided it was high time to bug out… and they were taking their colony with them.

To accomplish this they commissioned the Junk Guild to convert their colony satellite into a spacecraft. A project of this scale was usually a national effort; henceforth all available Junk Guild members had been mobilized. Lowe and co were one of many crews working on the project.

Shortly after their arrival, Lowe's group took a tour of the colony. In preparation for leaving Earth's orbit, Liteiria had already expanded their agricultural production to the point where they were completely self-sustainable and no longer required any additional supplies from Earth or any other nearby colonies. They were completely independent and soon they would be out of reach of both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance's meddling.

* * *

Elijah Keil was a mercenary in the employ of Serpent Tail. Not long before setting foot on Liteiria, he had been at the PLANTs speaking with National Defense Committee Chairman, Patrick Zala whom had hired him to eliminate a dangerous deserter; Gud Vair.

Before becoming a mercenary, Elijah had also been a soldier of ZAFT, so of course he had heard of Gud Vair, most likely everyone currently enlisted in ZAFT had heard of him at least once. He was the pilot of a custom red GINN, whom upon single handedly defeating the Earth Alliance's fleet less than a year ago after all friendly forces had been annihilated, earning him the moniker; 'the Hero of ZAFT.'

Patrick Zala was no doubt keeping Gud's desertion quiet to prevent loss of morale, most likely with an official cover something along the lines of; 'special assignment.' Elijah's part in this was to remove Gud permanently so as to prevent him from making an inconvenient appearance rending the Chairman's efforts for naught.

And this was how Elijah found himself on Liteiria.

Among the populous one could occasionally spot the uniforms of former soldiers from both ZAFT and the Earth Alliance here and there. These individuals had deserted from their respective militaries and now cooperated with the colonists' efforts. All in all, it was the perfect place to search for a deserter.

Since all the deserters were still in uniform it was a simple matter of confirming the identities of all former ZAFT personnel, however Liteiria was a large colony so it took a little time to locate and identify each of them.

Eventually he found Gud Vair, all he had do now was eliminate him, however Elijah hesitated, he was curious as to why a decorated veteran like Gud would dessert without warning.

So Elijah did something he normally wouldn't have done; he approached Gud in person. Gud wore the red uniform of ZAFT's top pilots and headphones hung around his neck. Like Elijah he had white hair and the two of them could've been mistaken for siblings.

It wasn't hard to arrange a meeting; all Elijah had to do was volunteer to help with the tasks that Gud was working on. Shortly after introductions the pair started to converse as they worked. Thanks to the green ZAFT uniform that Elijah wore marking him as a Coordinator, it made it easy for Gud to open up to him.

"So, you here to get from the war?" Gud asked.

"Does a guy need a better reason? It's nuts out there." He replied. "Though I have to admit, I didn't expect to find a ZAFT red here of all places. You guys are typically the first into battle and last out."

"True," Gud admitted. "Most of us had a strong sense of duty."

"Not you." Elijah asked cautiously, he didn't want to anger Gud by implying a lack of integrity.

"Unlike most Coordinators my age, I wasn't born on the PLANTs; I… was born in the Earth Alliance as part of a military project." Gud hesitantly informed him.

"You're a Combat Coordinator." Elijah blurted out in surprise.

"You've heard of them…?" Gud asked warily, uncertain of Elijah's reaction.

"Met a few," Elijah said thinking of Gai; a fellow mercenary of Serpent Tail. "Not all of them were trying to kill me."

Gud was visibly relieved that his new acquaintance wasn't overly negative towards his kind. "Anyway, back when they were conditioning us, apparently it didn't take with me and I was able to escape. Eventually I was able to migrate to the PLANTs where I enlisted with ZAFT. Of course ZAFT's high command was aware of my origins. The retina ID grafted to all Combat Coordinators is visible to the naked eye so there's no hiding it."

Elijah of course knew about the retina IDs, it was the reason Gai wore sunglasses all the time no matter the occasion, in order to conceal his origins.

"Naturally it was struck from the record and I was under heavy surveillance for much of my career. It's funny, I was created to fight and kill Coordinators, but because I was defective I was able to free myself of that fate, and then I fought for ZAFT because it was all I knew how to do. When I realized that… I ran away, and wound up here."

"So you're defective too huh." Elijah self-depreciating remarked surprised Gud. "As you can tell by this uniform, I'm a Coordinator. However I don't have any of their enhancements, unless you put my DNA under a microscope, you'd be forgiven for assuming that I was a Natural." Something that Chairman Zala had disapprovingly pointed out where he hired Elijah.

Regardless, he now figured out Zala's angle, when Gud had deserted, Zala needed him to die a hero's death as one of ZAFT's own, and then sealing the record of his origins and possibly contributions to his success – no matter how remote – by the EA's military project that created him.

Zala couldn't permit those details to become public knowledge, least the concept that the EA had engineered a Coordinator whose abilities surpassed those on the PLANTs took root, devastating morale. To ensure absolute secrecy Gud had to be silenced before he could contradict the public record, as 'dead men tell no tales.'

"That's not so bad," Gud said surprising Elijah, he gestured towards the people nearby. "I mean look around, the Naturals get by just fine as they are. Don't you agree? You don't need enhancements to decide your future."

"You know what… I think you're right."

* * *

To say that Lowe and co frequently ran into surprises was a severe understatement. Though many would be forgiven for asking, after all what were the odds that they'd run into Liam's long lost brother whom had run away from home many years ago, and what were the odds that he was the one coordinating the project that they were hired to assist with.

I mean seriously.

Either way, after Liam's family reunion had concluded and the trio set to work, the Professor transferred from their ship – the H.O.M.E. – to the colony to meet with Liam's brother, Shinisto.

Her purpose; a business proposal.

The Professor was a scientist first and foremost; therefore leaving a mystery unsolved went against her nature. Unfortunately some mysteries were inconveniently out of reach, in which case she was forced to delegate. All she needed to do now was twist Shinisto's arm into helping her, in order to that however she would have to divulge some of what she had learned from the mystery mobile suit.

For all the running around Shinisto did to co-ordinate the project, it took her no short amount of time to pin down his location. The two of them met privately in one of the tents serving as temporary offices for coordinating the project.

"So what can I do for you?" He asked her.

"I'm here with a proposal." She told him. "One that I believe would greatly benefit Liteiria in the long run, especially once you've reached Jupiter."

Intrigued Shinisto nodded for her to continue. "I'm listening."

"On this, are plans for a prototype semi-perpetual generator that could theoretically produce a near infinite amount of power through harnessing baryonic decay." She told him, sliding a data disc across the table to him.

"Semi-perpetual…" He mused skeptically, "Sounds highly efficient. What's the catch?"

"The catch; is a critical module that's required to harness the topological defects to regulate the availability of a catalyst essential to produce near infinite energy. Its purpose is similar to a carburetor, though its function is fundamentally different." She informed him. "However the only way to build it requires a ridiculously rare particle for to act as a catalyst that many aren't sure even exists and likewise expensive to create artificially, or a more feasible way is to find it at a celestial body with an excessively powerful magnetic field chockfull of exotic high energy particles, say… I don't know, Jupiter."

"What a coincidence, that's where we're going." He noted sarcastically before asking, "Still, I don't see why you're giving this to me. Why don't you come with us and research it yourself?"

"There's nothing I'd rather do," she said whimsically. "However there are other mysteries that warrant investigation, and I need to outsource expertise for that and the only person who could help me is not at liberty to drop everything and follow me to Jupiter."

"I see, but tell me this." Holding up the disk he asked, "Is this for real, or is it purely theatrical?"

She gave him a knowing smile responding. "The wreck of a once functioning unit is sitting in storage inside the hull of my ship." Of course she neglected to mention what it had been powering so as not to scare him off of the project.

"So it's real, and functional?" He asked.

"It's real." She answered. "And at least it was functional."

"The critical module…" He deduced.

"Is all that stands between me and near unlimited energy." She confirmed. "And for the near future, you guys would be the only ones who could feasibly build it. So what do you say?"

Shinisto gave the matter some thought.

"All right then, we have a deal." He agreed. They shook hands before parting ways.

* * *

Elijah had been enjoying the peace and quiet of Liteiria as he assisted Gud with his work. However that peace was soon shattered by the arrival of an Earth Alliance fleet.

It took a little time for him to get to Liteiria's exterior to reach his concealed custom GINN, it was painted various shades of blue, with the Serpent Tail insignia on the left side of its torso and a buster sword head fin – a last resort weapon mounted on top of the GINN's head – otherwise it looked like your typical GINN.

He was armed with a recoilless rifle, a heavy assault rifle stored on the back of his GINN's waist and finally a heavy sword on its left hip.

Shortly after taking off, he detected another GINN on approach much to his surprise.

"To the unknown GINN, identify yourself or be fired upon." Demanded a familiar voice.

"Gud?" He inquired.

"Elijah!?" Was Gud's startled response.

"I must say, I'm surprised you kept your GINN." He remarked.

Gud's GINN aside from its red and white paint scheme was – like Elijah's – little different from the standard GINN with the exception of a shield mounted on the right shoulder. His armament was the usual heavy assault rifle and heavy sword.

"Who do you think sees off the pirates that come sniffing around here?" Gud said in good humor.

"Point taken." As they curved around the colony, they got their first good look at the enemy fleet, consisting of six ships; one Agamemnon class acting as the fleet's flagship, two Nelson class battleships and three Drake class escorts.

"This is bad," Gud said unable to hide his trepidation. "If that fleet gets too close, their N Jammers will prevent the colony from firing the engine. They won't be able to escape Earth's orbit."

While the Neutron Jammer was originally invented by the PLANTs, the Earth Alliance had salvaged enough ZAFT wrecks to be able to reverse engineer their own. Initially they had hoped to discover a means of nullifying them, but had no such luck thus far. The decision was then made that if they couldn't employ nuclear weapons, no one can. Therefore – just like ZAFT's – all Earth Alliance warships were equipped with their own N Jammers to prevent nuclear strikes against them by ZAFT.

Unfortunately Liteiria's newly installed engine was powered by a nuclear reactor using nuclear devices discarded due to the invention of the N Jammer.

Suddenly, a high speed shuttle zoomed away from the colony at speed, and the Alliance Fleet turned to intercept.

"Who was that?" Gud wondered out loud.

Elijah magnified the image on his screen. Clinging to the back of the shuttle; a red mobile suit was visible. "Red Frame… it's Lowe. Looks like the Junk Guild is running decoy." He told Gud.

"And he's taking the entire fleet with him too." Gud cheered. "Wait… the Agamemnon, it turning? It's coming back!"

* * *

Seeing the ship turn back, Gud accelerated his GINN to intercept. As the distance closed Gud placed his headphones over his ears.

Gud was what people would call a noise junkie who liked listening to irritating noises other people disliked. Surprisingly somehow this improved his battle performance and as such he would wear broken headphones which played nothing but noises and static into battle.

So drastic was the improvement he was able to single handedly defeat an entire fleet. However the sounds triggered a second, violent personality within him making him danger to both friend and foe alike.

After he deserted from ZAFT and came to Liteiria, where he heard Lacus' soothing music over the colony's radio broadcasts. Much to his surprise, her songs suppressed the violent personality.

Therefore sometime before the arrival of the Alliance fleet, he had asked one of the Junk Techs to make his headphones function properly so he could listen to Lacus' songs and keep the other personality suppressed. Before the techs had set out to work on the colony's engine, they had returned the headphones to him.

Plugging the headphones in, the sound of static filled his ears… the moment he realized this it was too late.

* * *

Seeing Gud flying ahead him, Elijah set off after him. As he tried to come with a plan; any mobile armors the ship launched would be easy enough for their two GINNs to handle, the problem was the flagship – more specifically its closing proximity to Liteiria – even with his recoilless rifle, the heaviest weapon they had on hand it would be difficult to disable the ship.

Elijah's thoughts were interrupted when Gud's GINN suddenly swiveled around and fired upon him, he barely evaded.

"Wha-! Gud, what the hell-?" Elijah demanded but all he could hear from Gud was mad laughter over the radio as Gud to fire upon him.

"Dammit to hell." Elijah returned fire with his recoilless rifle, the projectile glancing off Gud's shoulder shield. He had no idea what had suddenly come over Gud.

Gud drew his heavy sword and sliced through the barrel. Discarding it, Elijah un-holstered his heavy assault rifle all the while dodging incoming fire with marginal success.

Elijah was quick to realize that he was at a severe disadvantage against Gud, because his Coordinator enhancements didn't take at birth, his reaction time was slower and Gud's Combat Coordinator conditioning made him all the more menacing.

Wielding their heavy assault rifles, the two exchanged fire, chipping away at each other's armor as they continuously bobbed and weaved, circled and strafed one another.

By the time when their rifles ran dry both their GINNs' armor were heavily pitted from numerous impacts compromising their defense. As they both discarded their empty rifles, Elijah drew his heavy GINN sword and prepared for close combat. The two closed the distance and proceeded to hack away at each other.

Their mobile suits became unbalanced as they each sliced off a limb, throwing off their AMBAC systems. Even so Gud dominated the battle slicing off Elijah's sword arm at the elbow along with part of the wing blinder on the same side further crippling Elijah's mobility.

Seeing Gud's sword head overhead, Elijah resigned himself and awaited the finishing blow…

* * *

In the cockpit with sound of static in his ears, Gud began the motion to strike Elijah down with his GINN's heavy sword, however…

Before he could complete the motion. The static noise vanished, replaced with a sweet melody of Lacus' song. Gud's sword came to sudden and unexpected halt.

"W-what… am I… doing?" He stammered as he looked upon the wreck of Elijah's blue GINN. "Oh, no… I… did it again."

This is what had happened when he had first gone into battle as a soldier of ZAFT. His comrades hadn't been wiped out by the Alliance fleet but by him and afterwards he had turned on the fleet.

ZAFT had covered it up and blamed the losses on the Alliance, since then Gud had been deployed solo into battle. Realizing that he couldn't be trusted in battle, Gud deserted to the peaceful colony of Liteiria, if they succeeded in leaving Earth's orbit, he wouldn't have to fight another battle ever again and live the rest of his days peacefully.

"Gud… have you snapped out of it?" Elijah asked warily.

"Elijah…" He sobbed, "I'm sorry."

Elijah tried to reassure him. "Hey, it's over now-"

"-It's not over…" Gud cut him off, he could feel the other him pressing in on his mind, trying to retake control as the song wound down to a close. "He's coming back, I know it!"

"Before that, you need to kill me, Elijah please!" He pleaded. "Otherwise I'll end killing you, so… please…"

"I… I can't"

* * *

In spite of its damaged state and loss of most of its armament, Elijah's GINN still had one functional weapon left; the buster sword mounted on the head fin and the GINN still retained enough propulsion for one last ditch ramming attack.

Even so, Elijah couldn't bring himself to take Gud's life. Gud had accepted him where the Coordinators of the PLANTs had scorned him for his failed enhancements. As a member of Serpent Tail who worked alongside the Combat Coordinator Gai Murakumo, Elijah knew that Gud wasn't evil, that evil people had twisted something inside his mind.

"I… can't do it, I'm sorry." Elijah apologized.

"Elijah…" Gud's voice trailed off before suddenly turning hostile. "You're goanna regret that!"

Once again Gud raised his sword to strike the killing blow, but before he could bring it down, the tip of a beam saber erupted from Gud's cockpit killing him instantly.

From behind Gud's GINN, Blue Frame emerged.

"Gai? What are you…?"

"The Alliance hired me to locate stolen nuclear devices scheduled for disposal into the sun, the trail lead to here." Gai answered. "I don't suppose you know anything."

"I see." Was Elijah's despondent reply, he then explained about the colonists' plans to leave Earth orbit using a nuclear engine to fly them to Jupiter.

"Understood. Will you be alright?" Gai asked.

"I'll live."

"Gai! Gai! Do you read me; we're under attack by mobile suits." The caller was the Admiral of the nearby Alliance fleet whom had hired him.

On the monitor, Elijah saw Lowe's Red Frame and a GINN worker armed with a liner gun keeping the mobile armors at bay. "Our Moebiuses are outmatched, we need assistance."

"Negative Admiral." Gai responded.

"What?!"

"You hired me to locate the missing devices. I've found them, my mission is complete." Gai clarified; suddenly the colony's engine lit off and the colony began to accelerate. "And there it goes."

"Dammit! I won't forget this." The admiral abruptly cut the connection.

* * *

After the battle Gai both GINNs to the Junk Guild ship H.O.M.E. where Elijah's GINN underwent repairs using parts salvaged from Gud's GINN.

While they waited Elijah told Gai about how Gud was a Combat Coordinator and his suddenly aggressive split personality.

Gai surmised that Gud's erratic personality was the result of imperfect mental conditioning.

Later, upon confirming Gud's death, Patrick Zala credited Elijah for Gud's death, and Elijah became known as the 'Hero Killer.'

* * *

 **\- End of Chapter 6 -**

* * *

 **AN; As you've probably noticed by now, the 'Butterflies of Doom' are still in transit and have yet to be felt, this however will change around the mid-point of the story - Chapter 17 roughly - when the earliest butterflies start landing and begin to play havoc on the storyline.  
**

 **Those of you who've read the Astray Manga would've briefly seen Gud Vair though he went unnamed throughtout the chapter. Gud Vair's Character was explored during the Astray B; photo novel. Sadly I've never read the photo novel, as such my depiction of events in this chapter are based on what've found on the wiki. Anyway as you've probably guessed the Liteira Colony will play a critical role in future chapters.  
**

 **Next chapter we learn what becomes of Kira & Co.**

 **Only had a couple of negative reviews so far;**

 **'Breakerp16' brought up some points, most them were already resolved instory - though easily overlooked mind you - he had a point in regards to the Blitz's optical steatlh though, I'll admit that. I've hopefully resolved that.**

 **As for 'Rodenmar,' there doesn't appear to be anything I can do about the issue he brought up. alternatively Exia could've fallen into the hands of either ZAFT or the Earth Forces** ** **as mentioned by 'HolyKnight5'** , neither of which presents the possibility of returning Exia to Setsuna.**

 **As mentioned in the previous chapter's Author's Notes; A guest reviewer has recently suggested fully incorporating the Astray spin-offs into the story, previously I've mentioned my reasoning for skipping segments so as not to rehash events that haven't diverged from canon as influenced by the current plot - thou I have provided a brief summary of events between those segments. Those of you who are familiar with the Astray spin-offs have been satisfied with this, henceforth I pitch this question to those who aren't; Do you think I should rehash events in the spin-offs such as Lowe's attempted rescue of Lacus' shuttle as mentioned above, or are fine with me skipping them?**

 **I've had a few responses so far, but I figured I'd wait a bit longer before deciding.**

 **Let me know in a review or pm.**


	7. Cursed Swords - Phase 11

**Cursed Swords: Phase 11**

* * *

For the refugees on-board Orb's rescue fleet, it felt like it had been an eternity since they were packed onto the ships after Heliopolis was destroyed by a battle between the Earth Alliance and ZAFT.

Soon they would arrive at Orb's orbital satellite; Ame-no-Mihashira. Up to this point Sai had taken Flay's meals to her since she started avoiding Kira and the others.

Lacus on the other hand had become increasingly popular among the passengers, the teen idol warmed up to people easily often performing a number of songs to entertain the refugees sharing the ship with them. It was so popular in fact that not only was it broadcasted over the ship's intercom, but also the rest of the fleet. The Captain's justification being to improve the overall morale of the refugees.

The youngest amongst refugees brought forth stacks of colored paper; apparently it was intended for a school art project but now served to alleviate their boredom as they waited making paper flowers, cranes and the like.

* * *

When they docked at long last at the orbital satellite, the refugees disembarked from the ships. They were then moved to processing, where their identification were confirmed, and informed of the status of significant others who had arrived earlier and waiting for them, or sadly, didn't arrive at all.

Afterwards they were transferred into atmospheric shuttles and sent to the Homeland for relocation. Traffic was heavy and processing took time, with numerous shuttles coming and going from the Kaguya Mass Driver on Earth, to the satellite and back again.

During this process Cagalli was brought before the satellite's overseer; Rondo Mina Sahaku. She was tall woman in her thirties and had shoulder length black hair and red eyes. The Sahaku's were one of Orb's noble families much like the Athhas and Seirans.

"What on earth were you thinking, running off to Heliopolis on your own?" Mina asked rhetorically, she clearly didn't expect a sensible answer from the young princess. "Do you have any idea how much of a ruckus you caused disappearing so suddenly without warning? No. You had Orb's police scouring every inch of the country for you. Military intelligence suspected that you had been abducted by a foreign power!" Cagalli flinched at her sharp tone.

"Fortunately we were able to keep your absence under wraps from the public, that and we were to trace your movements to the spaceport and from there your destination."

Throughout the conversation Mina didn't once look up from her monitor, now finally Mina turned her gaze on Cagalli and said. "So you saw them?"

"Yes," Cagalli said firmly, determined not to lose her composure in front of this woman, she had lost a lot arguments that way. "I saw the Earth Force's two mobile weapons."

"Two huh, what of them?" Mina said dismissively and at the same time condescending.

"Don't give me that! Those machines were the reason ZAFT attacked in the first place." Cagalli argued, "And Heliopolis was destroyed as a result."

"You're right." Mina said unapologetically. "But what if I told you it made all the difference for Orb's survival in the near future?"

She outlined her scenario. "Had the prototypes not been on developed on Heliopolis, they would've been stolen from one of Actecon Industries' satellite factories instead. However, I have it on good authority that the Earth Forces have already transferred the G-Weapon's technical data to; another facility some time ago, and have already begun development of second generation G-Weapons." At this Cagalli reacted with shock, if the ones at Heliopolis were already superseded… then what was the point.

"That's right. ZAFT has done nothing to hamper the G-Weapon's development; soon the Earth Forces will deploy their own mobile suits in mass. And they'll initially claw back some of the ground they lost over the past year. But it won't last. Reserve engineering the stolen unit's technology, ZAFT will improve upon its current lineup of mobile suits and the Earth Forces will lose their edge once again. Unfortunately for the Earth Forces, their military industry has being at full capacity for months now. If they're to overwhelm the PLANTs with their industrial capacity, they'll need to tap other industries who've yet reached full capacity. But… the only industries not at full capacity are outside of the ONMI Enforcer member nations."

Cagalli gasped in realization. Seeing her expression Mina nodded. "As of now, the Orb Union, the Kingdom of Scandinavia, the Equilateral Union and other neutral nations that currently uninvolved in the war are untapped with plenty of capacity to spare. In time, the Earth Forces will grow desperate enough to demand their cooperation, and for those who refuse… military action will be necessary."

"You're not suggesting they'll invade Orb are you?" Cagalli asked fearfully.

"Why not… we conveniently possess the Kaguya Mass Driver don't we, one of three in the world. After ZAFT's seizure of the Victoria Driver, OMNI Enforcers have to route all their space assets supplies through the Panama Driver and they're choking on it." Mina answered. "We'd fight back of course, but as we've seen from the battles on Earth, linear tanks are next to useless against mobile suits. Our navies would fare better both on the sea and in space. However, they'll inevitably be overwhelmed by the Earth Forces sheer numbers."

"That's why we offered technical assistance or the G-Weapon Project, both to focus their military away from Orb, as well as piggyback our own mobile suit development. That way should the Earth Forces turn on us, we'll answer them with our own. That's the difference."

The intercom chimed. "Lady Rondo, the Princess's escort has arrived."

"Send him in." She responded. The door to her office opened and a man in a military uniform entered. "Cagalli, this is Colonel Ledonir Kisaka of the 21st Airborne Unit, he'll be you escort back down to Orb. I've already prepared a private shuttle for your use, we're done here."

"If you would follow me. Princess." Kisaka offered.

Reluctantly Cagalli stood from her chair and followed after him.

When the door shut behind her, Mina brought up the Astray Project on her monitor.

 _'_ _We've only recovered Unit 4 completely intact, and 80% of Unit 1, though the rail bazooka intended for the Duel was an unexpected bonus. Unit 5 is a write off. Unit 2 has been sighted in the hands of the Junk Guild, and Unit 3 with the Mercenary Unit; Serpent Tail.'_

Mina brought up the dossier of Unit 2's pilot; Lowe Gear. _'The fact that this Natural can pilot it at all, proves the value of the Natural Use OS installed on Unit 2. Everyday it's out of hands sets back our preparations. If only Gina would let me settle things my way.'_

Rondo Gina Sahaku was her genetic twin brother, he was virtually identical to her in outward appearance that it was easy to confuse the two.

While Mina managed the satellite Ame-no-Mihashira, Gina was stationed on Heliopolis to oversee the Astray Project as well as Actecon Industries' G-Weapon Project. Their father Koto Sahaku oversaw Morgenroete HQ on Onogoro Island based alongside the Kaguya Driver.

While Gina had been successful in recovering Units 1 and 4, he insisted on personally retrieving Unit 2 from the Junk Guild and eliminate them to maintain secrecy. Being Junk Techs, Mina couldn't understand why they didn't simply purchase it from them.

Though Orb's involvement with the Astrays was unknown, currently the existence of the Astrays was now an open secret no thanks to the Junk Guild and Serpent Tail, and both Actecon Industries and the Eurasian Federation had eyes on them, particularly the Junk Guild's Unit.

Currently, senior engineer Erica Simmons was working round the clock to get the Astray Project back on track, but without the OS only Coordinators would be able to pilot them, and there weren't nearly enough to defend the nation.

Suddenly a notification appeared in the corner of her screen. She opened the notification on her monitor and saw that it was a security report from the Kusanagi regarding an individual. A young man, the crew had observed him interacting with the Princess in a candid manner, and supposedly ensured that she had reached a lifeboat prior to Heliopolis's destruction.

 _'_ _Did the little tart find herself a boyfriend along the way?'_ She mused.

She brought up the ID number of Cagalli's lifeboat; part of that number identified the launch site, allowing rescuers to identify from where in the colony the lifeboat had been launched from. Referencing the code, she saw that Cagalli's lifeboat originated from the factory district where the G-Weapon's had been stored nearby. She did it again, this time with the code for the boy's lifeboat, which originated a short distance away from Cagalli's. If it was true that he had escorted her there, then he may have seen one or more of the prototype as well.

She looked over his dossier once more. The boy's name was Kira Yamato, a student at a college with associations with Morgenroete. According to his ID, he was a part of the software development department, his primary role being program analysis. This sounded like exactly what Erica needed right now.

Mina keyed the intercom once more. "I'm sending you a personnel ID, I want this individual's departure delayed so that I can debrief him regarding matters at Heliopolis.

"Yes, Lady Sahaku. Shall I have security detain him?"

"No," she responded. "Just have him transferred to the waiting room with our… other guest."

"Yes, Ma'am. Speaking of which, a ZAFT Nazca is on approach."

* * *

Kira had no idea why he had been singled out. All he knew was that the director of the satellite wished to speak with him in private. Surprisingly he wasn't alone in the waiting room, also waiting was a familiar pinkette; Lacus Clyne humming a song alongside her robot companion.

"Why, hello again." She greeted him with a small wave.

"Hello, you've here too, dose the director need to speak with you as well?" He asked curiously.

"Oh no, I've already spoken with the director. She told me that they be contacting the PLANTs, and I was to wait here until a ship arrived to take me back home." She answered.

"I see." Kira would be sorry to see her go. He enjoyed her company, even when it made some of his interactions with Cagalli tense. Speaking of which, he hadn't seen her since they'd arrived at the satellite. The moment they had docked, she had seemingly been whisked away, he hadn't even had a chance to say goodbye.

"So you're waiting here to see the director?" Lacus inquired.

"Yeah. Though I'm not sure why. I can't think any particular reason." He answered scratching his head. However, he recalled the moment when he had followed Cagalli into that hangar with those two mobile suits.

 _'_ _Could that be the reason?'_ He wondered, _'If so, how did they find out, did Cagalli tell them?'_

Kira's musing was interrupted when Birdy, his own robot companion flew out his jacket and perched itself on the back of one of the chairs.

"Birdy," it chirped. This garnered the attention of Lacus's Haro.

"Haro, haro."

"Birdy"

"Haro!"This back and forth between the two animatronics lasted for a time.

"Who's your friend?" Lacus asked, holding out her to Birdy, it obligingly perched her hand chirping at her.

"This is Birdy, an old friend made him for me quite a few years ago." Kira told her nostalgically.

"I see. My Haro – much like your Birdy – was also a gift from my fiancé." She informed him. "Because I was so happy with Mr. Pink here, he made me a bunch more.

The thought elicited an awkward chuckle from him. _'And she has a bunch of those back home, must be hectic dodging around them,'_ He mused recalling his initial introduction, the image of a dozen of them greeting you at the door b pouncing on you sounded like some demented game of dodge ball.

At the same time Kira felt as if he'd been gutted. _'Fiancé? Just my luck, she's taken…'_ Kira thought soberly. _'Who am I kidding; of course she has a boyfriend. Still, not many girls can be impressed with a robot companion for a gift.'_ "Lucky bastard, sounds like the kind of thing that Athrun would give a girl."

"You know Athrun?" She asked her eyes wide with surprise. Kira suddenly realized that he must have spoken out loud.

"Umm… Yeah, we attended the same school at Copernicus roughly ten years ago. He made Birdy for me before he was recalled back to the PLANTS." He told her. "And you, how do you know Athrun?"

"Athrun also gave me this Haro, we're to be married." She told him.

 _'_ _What?!'_ Kira gaped at her and groaned, _'She's Athrun's fiancée, that's going to make for an awkward reunion.'_

The door to the waiting room opened suddenly, and standing in the doorway – as if summoned – was Athrun. "Huh, Kira?" His gaze shifted to Lacus, "Lacus?"

At his sudden appearance, Kira momentarily panicked. "It's not what it looks like!" He blurted.

"Wha-!" Athrun began but was cut short when a familiar pink missile joyfully tackled its creator, much to Kira's relief.

"Athrun! Athrun!" The Haro cried out. Confused by the situation and Kira's outburst, Athrun fumbled the catch and the Haro clocked him.

A few moments later Athrun held an icepack to the courtesy lump gifted to him by his creation.

"Are you ok, Athrun?" Lacus asked him. Athrun was currently lying across the several chairs in the waiting room, his head cradled in her lap, making Kira feel a little envious. "I'm sorry about Haro, he's rather excitable."

"I'm pretty sure I didn't program that trait into him." He groaned. "I'll be fine though, fortunately I didn't make him any heavier."

Sitting up he fixed his gaze on Kira. "It's been awhile, Kira."

"About ten years." Kira replied. Birdy was perched on his shoulder.

"I guess it's no surprise you're here in Orb." Athrun remarked.

"There aren't many places for a first gen Coordinator to go and stay with their families. I'm even more surprised to see you in a uniform." Kira pointed out, "You said you hated war."

"I do, even now." Athrun answered soberly, "My mum was on Junius Seven when the war began. Right now, I'm doing what I can to stop it from happening again."

"Then what do you call what happened to Heliopolis?" Kira asked pointedly.

"That wasn't intentional; we had no choice but to act." Athrun said heatedly. "If you want the reason, I suggest you ask your government, though I doubt that they'll give you a straight answer."

"The government? Are you talking about the mobile suits?" Kira demanded.

Athrun stiffened, "You saw them?"

"At the warehouse, during the attack." Kira answered. "I also saw ZAFT soldiers killing the warehouse personnel."

 _'_ _Warehouse personnel? He doesn't know that they're from the Earth Forces.'_ Athrun realized much to his relief; it meant his friend wasn't involved in Orb's shady backroom dealings with the Earth Forces.

"If you know that much then I'll give you a straight answer. Those mobile suits were built by Orb for the Earth Forces." Athrun told him. "We couldn't ignore the threat, so we made the first move. The mission was to steal the prototypes and destroy the new carrier. Unfortunately we weren't able to capture all of them and the carrier survived… The decision was made to go back in."

"Fighting inside the colony, what were you thinking?!" Kira demanded.

"Hey! Do you see a Commander's insignia on my uniform? It wasn't my decision; it was out of my hands. I disobeyed orders and went back in to end the fight quickly before the carrier could deploy its heavy weapons within the colony. I just… wasn't fast enough." Athrun's voice trailed off for a moment before he spoke up again. "I admit we may have overreached during the operation, there may have been other options we could've exploited. My point is it was not our intention to destroy the colony, I'm sorry there's nothing I can say that'll change what's already happened."

Suddenly the door opened once more, a masked man in a white ZAFT uniform stood in the doorway.

"Commander?" Athrun said surprised to see him.

"I came to see what held you up." Rau told him as his gaze shifted from Athrun to Lacus, and finally to Kira. "We've made arrangements to rendezvous with the La Connie team. They will take Miss Clyne back to the PLANTs."

"Sir?" Athrun was confused; his understanding was that they would personally escort Lacus back to the PLANTs.

"I've just received word from the Gamow; the legged ship will soon link up with Halberton's 8th feet. The Gamow will attempt a quick intercept before they reach the fleet." Rau informed him. "In the event that they fail, we'll have to assault the fleet itself, they'll need us, and the Zeddler is already on its way to join them. We have little time to waste."

Rau turned to Lacus. "Miss Clyne, it's time to go, let us be on our way."

Lacus nodded before turning to Kira. "Thank you for your kindness and company up till now. I hope we meet again in the future."

Athrun also bid farewell. "See you around, Kira."

"I hope so." Was all Kira could manage as they departed.

* * *

Not long after, Kira was brought before Mina.

"Please take a seat." She gestured to the chair opposite her. "You're Kira Yamato, correct?"

"Yes ma'am." He answered, "Umm… may I ask what this about?"

"At Heliopolis, you saw the mobile suits, didn't you, along with the girl?" She inquired.

 _'_ _So it is about that.'_ Kira realized. "Yes." He answered, two of them to be exact."

"Can you think of any reason why they were there?"

"To my understanding, they were for the Earth Forces… and that we…built them." Kira answered honestly, Cagalli had implied as much in her brief outburst back when the two of them had stumbled across the warehouse.

"Correct, on both counts. They were intended for the Earth Forces, and yes, we did build them." Mina confirmed, "What you're wondering right now is 'why,' 'why would we jeopardize our neutrality with this act.'"

Mina entered a command on her terminal and the schematics for a mobile suit appeared on the monitor behind her. "This is the Astray Project." She told him, "Just as the Earth Forces used us to expedite their mobile suit development, we piggybacked ours on theirs."

"The reason for this is that with or without us, they would've built them anyway and while it may initially turn the war in the Earth Forces favor, it doesn't guarantee victory. ZAFT will not sit idly by, it will continue to adapt and develop its mobile suits until a new equilibrium is struck and the stalemate resumes.

To overcome this, the Earth Forces will pressgang the industries of neutral nations, by force if necessary. By this point the Earth Forces would've began mass production of their mobile suit, and while our navy is formidable, our tanks and aircraft are no match for mobile suits built by either side. The Astrays were to be a counter against invasion by mobile suits, whether they are ZAFT, or Earth Forces.

The problem is we were only able to recover two of our prototypes after Heliopolis was destroyed. It's enough to mass produce for defense; however, we also lost the M.O.S. which allows Naturals to pilot the Astray with the same proficiency as Coordinators. This means that should Orb come under attack, we'd have to draft Coordinators such as yourself to pilot the Astrays in defense of the nation, unless…"

"Unless?" Kira stammered, he didn't relish the idea of being drafted into the military should war come to his home.

"Unless we create a new Natural use M.O.S. so our military personnel can pilot them into battle, as it should be." Mina told him. "Unfortunately with the loss of both Heliopolis and some of our prototypes, we don't have enough personnel to tackle both production, and software development for the Astrays."

"What exactly are you getting at?" Kira asked shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Your file lists you as a program analyst." She remarked.

"Wait…! You're asking me to help develop weapons?" Kira demanded shaking his head.

"Do you want Orb to suffer the same fate as Heliopolis?" She countered.

Kira flinched at the thought and was silent for a time.

"Your answer, Kira Yamato. What will it be?"

* * *

Continuing to their rendezvous, the Archangel accompanied only by two out of three escort ships; Montgomery and Law as they preceded at best speed to link up with the 8th fleet.

On the bright side, the Archangel no longer had a skeleton crew. In addition to escorting the Archangel, the Escort Fleet had also provided replacement crew and some supplies. Though some of them had been lost with the destruction of the ship; Bernard.

Regardless of being short of a full crew they were now able to delegate other duties to the additional personnel, and the original crew was no longer juggling multiple duties simultaneously.

This was also a relief for the Escort Fleet whose ships were overcrowded with both crew and supplies while in transit to meet the Archangel, placing a burden on their ship's life support systems.

Despite this, the Archangel's crew wasn't idle. With most of the prototypes and their unique technologies in the hands of ZAFT, much of the original crew who were most familiar with the prototypes were now brainstorming countermeasures for when ZAFT began implementing those technologies themselves.

Fortunately the prototypes schematics were stored on the Archangel's databanks, no surprise as it was intended to be their carrier and the data would be needed for testing and maintenance.

Setsuna in particular was combing through their schematics looking for a weakness in the design he could exploit though he was coming up short. The technical details of the G-Weapons more exotic technologies were more theatrical then concrete at this point in time, particularly in regards to the Phase Shift Armor and the Mirage Colloid stealth system.

He had offered some suggestions for the latter. However, because of the difference in technologies developed by the OMNI Enforcers and Celestial Being, he wasn't certain as to how effective it would be in practice.

Unfortunately, Setsuna wasn't much of an engineer. It was times like this when he missed Ian, Linda, Mileina and Feldt. The four of them could probably understand how any of this might work better than he could, and perhaps fabricate a counter or at least tell him how they could use what they already had against it.

Their brief respite however, was short lived.

Suddenly, there was a call to battle stations, Mu and Setsuna raced to their respective machines. Unlike the rest of the ship, the hanger crew was fully staffed. With the loss of the Escort Fleet's complement of Moebiuses, the Montgomery's hanger crew had no mobile armors to attend and thus a number of them were transferred to the Archangel. As such, both Mu's Zero and Setsuna's Strike were ready for launch in record time.

When the Strike was moved to the catapult, Setsuna equipped the Sword Striker pack. He couldn't risk using the Launcher's heavy weapons should the enemy such as the Blitz infiltrate their formation resulting in friendly fire. While the Aile was reasonable compromise, his target this time was the Buster, which aside from its 350mm Gun Launcher had no other close in weapons.

Frankly Setsuna was more comfortable in close quarters.

Launching from the catapults, Setsuna and Mu vectored towards the oncoming trio.

"That's a tight formation they're using." Mu noted.

Suddenly, the three suits split away from one another and through the center of their formation twin beams lanced through and struck one of the ships.

"The Montgomery has been hit." Mu told him, "They used that formation to obscure our view of the Laurasia firing position. They're targeting the battleship."

The three ships launched a retaliatory strike of anti-ship missiles. In the distance they see flares and the flash of the Laurasia's point defense guns accompanied by the explosions of diverted missiles and near misses.

"Heads up! The Duel is bearing down on you." Mu warned as the approaching Duel opened up with its beam rifle.

However, Setsuna declined to engage and vectored away towards the Buster. As the Duel turned to follow, Mu deployed his gunbarrels and unloaded into its exposed back, preventing the Duel from pursuing.

The Buster melting with no opposition had attempted to slip past the pair and engage the warships having combined its Gun Launcher and Beam Rifle into an anti-armor shotgun.

Seeing the Buster take aim, Setsuna fired a rocket powered grappling claw mounted on his small arm-mounted shield.

The claw collided with the barrel knocking it off target as the Buster fired diverting the blast of armor piercing scattershot away from the ships and catching the Blitz in fringe of the blast saved only by its PS Armor.

Setsuna engaged the beam on his anti-ship sword while firing his CIWS to suppress the Buster as he closed the distance. The Buster tried to bring its weapon around to engage the Strike but couldn't turn quickly enough.

With a swing of the Strike's sword, Setsuna sliced through the gunbarrel, disabling the Buster's Gun Launcher, thus removing its long-range capability minimizing its threat to the fleet.

* * *

While the Strike and the Zero engaged the Duel and Buster. It was left to the Archangel and its escort to deal with the Blitz.

"Blitz is approaching!"

"Very well," Murrue acknowledged. "Natarle."

"Yes, Captain."

"Target has engaged Mirage Colloid!"

"Begin scanning for light distortion." Natarle ordered.

Before the battle Setsuna had noted that the Blitz's optical camouflage no matter how good might have a lensing effect creating slight distortions as it bent the light around it. The Archangel and its escorts were using the overlapping coverage of their LADARs to detect and triangulate any anomalies which could be used to narrow down its location.

"Target acquired!"

"Upload target coordinates to the Montgomery and Law" Natarle instructed. "Engage with anti-air missiles. Igelstellungs throw up a barrage."

The Archangel, Montgomery and Law were arrayed in a loose triangular formation giving them overlapping fields of fire. All three ships unloaded on the point in space the Blitz was hiding in.

Due to power consumption, the Blitz couldn't have both its Mirage Colloid and PS Armor active at the same time. Faced with the oncoming mass of fire, the Blitz uncloaked and reengaged its PS Armor to weather the onslaught of kinetic rounds and shrapnel warheads from the three ships.

"Target has de-cloaked. Hits confirmed no damage."

"Figures," Natarle muttered. "Gottfrieds one and two, target the Blitz and fire!"

The Archangel's two heavy twin-barreled beam cannons fired, the Montgomery also added its own fire into the mix with its own beam cannon.

Natarle grimaced as the beams – barely – missed their target. Designed for ship-to-ship combat, the Gottfrieds couldn't traverse or fire quickly enough to hit such a small and nimble target.

"Target is cloaking once more!"

* * *

Yzak's skirmish with the pesky mobile armor was starting to get on his nerves. Every time he tried to close the distance it would dodge away, add to the fact that both Nicole and Dearka were both yelling in his ear for support and every time he turned to help them, the damned mobile armor would pounce on him.

"So this is what it's like to fight a skilled Natural." He grimaced as his Duel shuddered under another firing pass from the mobile armor, even as he retaliated with a blast from his beam rifle.

Suddenly he came under fire from another direction. His battle with the mobile armor had drawn close to where the Earth Force's ships were pinning down Nicole. Yzak had wandered within firing range and the small escort ship lit him up.

"I've had enough out of you!" Yzak fired a grenade into the bridge and shortly after its guns fell silent taking the heat off Nicole.

Yzak immediately sought out the position of the mobile armor, which as expected was bearing down on him once more, guns blazing.

He immediately opened fire, but the enemy pilot kept making minute adjustments to his heading, causing Yzak's shots to veer of the target each time.

"Yzak, a little here would be nice!" Dearka called out over the radio.

Glancing at the side monitor, Yzak saw that his partner was some distance away firing wildly trying to maintain some distance between him and the Strike's long sword. However, despite Dearka's best efforts the Strike was closing in.

Ignoring the mobile armor for the time being, Yzak raced to Dearka's aid. As he closed in, the mobile armor bore down on him from behind, the impacts from its kinetic rounds causing his Duel to shudder constantly.

"Where are you Yzak? This guy is getting a little too close for comfort."

Yzak's Duel shuddered once more under another series of hits. "Perhaps if you got this guy off my back I could do so something about your problem!"

Seeing his approach, Dearka briefly fired a solve of twelve missiles. Seeing this, the mobile armor behind Yzak switched targets from the Duel to the oncoming missiles trying to shoot them down while pulling away.

Free of interference, Yzak fired into the space between Dearka and the Strike to force it to disengage away from Dearka's Buster.

The Strike retaliated, firing its grappling claw, it knocked away Yzak's rifle. Undeterred Yzak drew his beam saber and closed with the Strike.

* * *

Setsuna used his sword's beam-blade to parry the Duel's beam-saber. In the side monitor, he saw the Buster pulling away as it continued exchanging fire with Mu's Zero, keeping him from intervening.

He shoved the Duel back, mindful of the anti-beam coating on the shield; he thrust his sword point first piercing the Duel's shield with the solid tip, before yanking upwards tearing the shield away.

The Duel drew its second beam-saber with its now free hand and prepared to reengage him. Unfortunately for Setsuna, his sword was still lodged in the Duel's shield making it awkward to wield.

Unlike the Setsuna's physical sword, the Duel's beam-sabers had little mass and thus were easier to maneuver by comparison leaving Setsuna with little choice. He abandoned the sword and pivoted his Strike back and downwards to avoid a slash that passed harmlessly overhead, in the same motion he drew and hauled the beam boomerang at the Buster still battling the Mu's Zero.

Using his thrusters, he maneuvered under and came up behind the Duel before using the Strike's legs to catch it in a scissor hold.

"Get the hell off me!" Setsuna heard the enemy pilot curse. Setsuna continued to grapple the Duel as he drew both of the Strike's combat knives.

When going through the G-Weapons' schematics earlier, Setsuna had noted that while Phase Shift Armor provided excellent protection against physical (Kinetic) attacks. However, its coverage wasn't all encompassing; the suit's joints where the internal mechanisms were exposed through the gaps were made from conventional materials and this infinitely more vulnerable.

Setsuna thrust one knife into the Duel's side where the hips and the waist met, before plunging the second into the neck between the head and collar.

Smoke bellowed and there was a small explosion. Abandoning the knives Setsuna released the Duel from his hold before kicking it away.

That's when the Laurasia fired a retreat signal. Setsuna saw the Buster, now with one leg cut off at the knee, withdrawing back to its ship. The Blitz returning from its engagement with the Archangel and its escort grabbed hold of the now motionless Duel and carried it back with it.

Glancing at his sensors, Setsuna saw the reason for ZAFT's sudden retreat. A large number of ships were closing at speed, his IFF identified them Halberton's 8th fleet.

"Whew… that was intense." Mu called out over the radio, Setsuna saw that his Zero was missing half its gun pods. "Longest ten minutes of my life."

Despite the turn of events, both of them had expended too many of their weapons to continue pursuit, therefore they turned back and returned to the Archangel.

* * *

 **End of Chapter 7.**

* * *

 **Author's Notes;** **Because the Sahaku twin's have the same first name, I'll be differentiating them by referring to them by their middle names; Gina & Mina.**

 **Mina's revelation about the 2** **nd** **Gen G-Weapons is pretty much a nod to what readers who've already seen the series already know from when the Archangel finally arrives at Alaska; that the G-Weapons' development has been taken to the next level as a few episodes later they deploy the Dagger in mass for the first time and soon after that, the Calamity, Raider and Forbidden. If anything it proves that despite their antagonistic attitudes they're far from complete morons.**

 **The mention of the number of Mass Drivers and who currently controls them also answers the reason behind the dysfunction between the Atlantic Federation and Eurasian Federation at Artemis. With the loss of the Victoria Driver in North Africa, Eurasia's space fleet is at the mercy of the Atlantic Federation for everyday supplies.**

 **The dialogue between Kira & Athrun was the biggest hang up when writing this chapter, the rest came easier. As you can see Kira's role in this story is beginning to manifest, he'll be making more appearances later in the story.**

 **Also to settle a frequently asked question; No one, not Lowe or anyone else, other than Setsuna will pilot Exia, and both will be reunited at the same time as all the other mid-season upgrades.**


	8. Perfect Strike - Phase 12-13

**\- Prefect Strike – Phase 12-13 -**

* * *

"You were unable to sink the legged ship." Stated Rau Le Creuset. He was seated in his Command chair on the bridge. Not long ago they had transferred Lacus Clyne to the La Connie team to return her to the PLANTs in their stead.

"We fought valiantly, but we were unable to prevent them from joining Halberton's 8th fleet." Captain Zelman of the Gamow had contacted him following the attempted intercept of the legged ship. With a frown Zelman continued, "I'm beside myself as to how we could accomplish so little against such a small force, in any other battle that would've been a cake walk."

Rau understood Zelman's frustration. Any surprise factor the legged ship possessed should have expired during its mad dash to Artemis, even with two additional ships as escort it shouldn't have gotten off so lightly.

As a frigate, the Laurasia class was more than capable of tearing through a Drake class escort ship even when outnumbered, and was better armed than the Nelson class battleship.

ZAFT's Nazca class was classified as a battleship, first deployed earlier this year for this particular conflict. Though small in number, ZAFT's fleet was more than a match for the Earth Forces' numerically superior fleet.

Ultimately the reason for this disparity was that the Earth Force's ships were hardly battle worthy dinosaurs overdue for the scrapheap.

They were built back in a time when there were no rival powers in space, only fledgling space colonies. Since attacking the fragile, yet expensive and resource intensive, colonies directly was still abhorrent back then the fleet's purpose was to intimidate, and lacking any serious opposition, much of its fleet in particularly its battleships were severely under-armed.

The Agamemnon class were the aircraft-carrier equivalent in space, in spite of being armed with two high energy cannons, like its sea-born predecessor its strength lies in its ability to project power through it s compliment of mobile armors; the Moebius and like its sea-born cousin it doubled as a flagship.

At the time it had been the most powerful and unrivalled fleet within the Earth's sphere of influence surpassing the fledgling independence movement in the PLANTs… until the emergence of ZAFT fielding its heavily armed Laurasia frigates, accompanied by a new mobile weapon; the Proto GINN.

Converted from zero gravity construction to combat, the Proto GINN quickly proved its effectiveness as a formidable combatant against the Moebius. A single Proto GINN could defeat three mobile armors with little to no damage, only in numbers greater than four could it be overwhelmed and destroyed. Its successor the GINN could safely defeat five mobile armors on its own.

It soon became apparent that the Agamemnon's could not transport mobile armors in sufficient numbers to overwhelm the newly developed Proto GINNs and the numerous under-armed battleships and escorts couldn't compensate for the Moebius's short comings. The majority of mobile armors were stationed at the colonies and military satellites.

None understood this more so than Halberton, who quickly concluded that the Earth Forces' aging fleet was in dire need of an overhaul.

Unfortunately for Halberton the Earth Forces had already sunk a lot of money and materials into its current fleet, and none of the member nations were willing to foot the bill of scraping and replacing its increasingly redundant fleet.

Instead the battleships' cargo bays were converted to hangers for mobile armors, but without a proper launch deck, take off and landing was arduous. The escorts with no cargo space to convert had Moebius's tied down to their hauls, their pilots having to spacewalk to their machines under combat conditions.

In spite of this, Halberton offered an _'olive branch'_ to the currently neutral Orb Union, and hashed out a joint project between the Earth Force's Actecon Industries and Orb's Morgenroete Industries to develop five mobile suit test platforms and a carrier that combined the best aspects of the Agamemnon flagship and the Nelson battleship culminating in to the G-Weapon project.

Rau personally believed that the legged ship's survival up to this point in spite of the odds lay in the pilot's of its two remaining mobile weapons. One of them being Mu La Flaga; Rau's long time nemesis. Highly experienced and one of the few that could fully utilize the Zero's remotely guided gunbarrels in battle, thanks to a unique trait shared between both he and Rau.

This trait granted them extremely high degrees of spatial awareness, almost a sixth sense. Unfortunately, they could also sense the presence of others who possessed the ability also, often giving away the other's position making it somewhat of a security risk to both sides. Fortunately, neither Mu nor Rau had revealed this trait to their superiors least they be removed from the front lines and turned into lab rats.

Regardless, the ability allowed Mu to make up for his mobile armor's deficiencies

Then there was the matter of the Strike. In its current state it was hard to believe that it could hold its own against its four compatriots now controlled by ZAFT. The versatility provided by its optional weapons packs aside, its capabilities weren't much different from the Duel's piloted by Yzak.

That left the pilot Athrun encountered during the rail on Heliopolis. Though surprised, Rau had initially dismissed Athrun's suspicions, however, his recent clash with the Strike lead him to discover that the pilot also possessed the same – or similar – trait as Mu and himself, Rau found this revelation most disconcerting.

Rau made a snap decision. "Once you link up with Zeddler, begin your attack on the 8th flee. Don't wait up for us."

"Sir?"

"As you said; these engagements should not have ended as they've had, and the _legged ship_ is the root cause of this." Rau emphasized. "We must destroy it while still out in the open. We'll join the battle as soon as we arrive."

"Understood." Zelman acknowledged before signing off.

* * *

Upon rejoining the 8th fleet, the escort 'law' after the destruction of its bridge along with many of its command staff had most of its systems operated from the auxiliary bridge, was now being towed by the battered battleship 'Montgomery' to Luna HQ where both ships would undergo refit and repair. The Archangel in the meantime had positioned itself alongside Halberton's flagship the 'Menelaos'

In Archangel's hangar, Mu La Flaga worked feverishly to repair and rearm his Zero with assistance from Setsuna. Despite the relative safety of having linked up with the 8th fleet, Mu doubted that Le Creuset would give up trying to sink the Archangel.

However, the threat of possible attack was only one of Mu's upcoming headaches; now that they were back among friendly forces it wouldn't be long before they had to address the elephant in the room.

"I see that you're all working hard."

Looking up from their work, they saw acting Captain; Lieutenant Murrue Ramius followed by Ensign Natarle Badgiruel as they floated down towards them thanks to extreme low gravity. The 8th fleet – including the Archangel – was parked in orbit close to the Earth's atmosphere; despite being in space they were close enough to feel the slight pull of gravity.

"With our luck, we'll probably need it sooner or later." Mu quipped.

"Surely not even ZAFT would attack the fleet with nothing but a handful of ships." Natarle voiced doubtfully.

"If the objective was to annihilate this fleet… no way." Mu agreed, "But there's only one ship in this fleet worth sinking at any cost, the rest don't matter."

"Our ship." Murrue concluded.

Mu nodded. "If they sink us, our efforts and the Admiral's would be for nothing." Mu pointed out, "so we need to keep on our toes, no matter how safe we feel."

Suddenly the hangar's airlock doors opened a shuttle flew in.

"Admiral on deck!" Warned a crewman as Halberton disembarked from the shuttle,, everyone present in the hangar saluted.

"At ease." He said returning their salute with one of his own. "Lieutenant Ramius, permission to come aboard."

"Granted, Admiral." Murrue permitted.

"Lieutenants Ramius, La Flaga and Ensign Badgiruel. If you would show me the Captain's office, we have much to discuss."

"This way Admiral." Murrue offered leading them out of the hangar.

"Keep an eye on things while we're speaking with Admiral." Mu told Setsuna ahs he followed after them. "Someone needs to be in-charge while we're gone."

* * *

"They're not heading toward Lunar?" Rau queried the other Captains. He was on the bridge with Captain Ades while speaking to the Captains of the Gamow and the Zeddler on the monitor.

"That's correct." Captain Zelman of the Gamow confirmed. "The 8th fleet is currently holding a fixed orbit outside Earth's atmosphere."

"They plan to send the legged ship and the prototype directly to Earth. Once there they'll begin mass production." Rau concluded. "We're out of time. The two of you begin your attack run immediately." Rau ordered.

* * *

In the Captain's office, Halberton sat behind the desk, next to him stood Captain Hoffman of the Menelaos. Before them stood Murrue, Mu and Natarle.

"First, I want to commend you for getting the Archangel and the Strike this far under such arduous conditions, as well as for preserving both the 'Law' and the 'Montgomery.' The Captain of the Montgomery forwarded me his commendations for saving the advanced fleet, therefore all members of the Archangel's original surviving crew including Lieutenant La Flaga will be receiving field promotions. As of now both Lieutenants Murrue Ramius and Mu La Flaga are promoted to Lieutenant Commander. Ensign Natarle Badgiruel is promoted to Lieutenant Junior Grade." Halberton announced as Hoffman handed each them their new ranks and insignia which they would apply to their uniforms once the current meeting ended.

Natarle frowned slightly as she was handed her new rank insignia. "If I may inquire Admiral, will Lieutenant Seiei not also be promoted?"

Halberton glanced at Hoffman before answering. "About that, that's another matter we're here to discuss-"

Halberton was cut off when the battle stations alarms went off. Murrue keyed the intercom. "Murrue to bridge, status report."

"Enemy ships approaching. Two Laurasias; both are deploying mobile suits. Duel, Buster, Blitz and six GINNs armed with heavy weapons."

"And the Nazca?" She inquired.

"Negative. There's no sign of the Nazca."

"La Creuset must be getting impatient if e didn't make them wait up for him before attacking." Mu observed.

"Your orders Admiral?" Murrue asked.

"Captain Hoffman, get to the shuttle and take command of the Menelaos." Halberton ordered.

Hoffman hesitated. "Admiral?"

"I need to coordinate the fleet; I can't do that while in transit. Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere." Halberton reassured him.

"Yes Admiral." With a crisp salute, Hoffman departed.

"Captain Ramius, head up to bridge and take command. I'll coordinate the fleet from here."

"Understood Admiral. Commander La Flaga, you and Setsuna remain on standby in the hangar."

Mu glanced momentarily at Halberton who nodded. "Roger that." He acknowledged

* * *

One would think that two frigates and less than dozen mobile suits would too few to assault a fleet, however, the disparity between ZAFT and the Earth Force's militaries was overwhelming, and it had to be for ZAFT's small military to overcome the Earth Force's numerical advantage. In spite of been classified as a frigate, the Laurasia outgunned anything that wasn't a battleship.

Heading into battle the Gamow and the Zeddler began exchanging fire with the Earth Force's escort ships as the GINNs split up to engage the many squadrons of mobile armors. Seeing this Yzak, Dearka and Nicol concentrated on the more heavily armed battleships.

Despite his injuries incurred during the previous skirmish, Yzak sorties into battle anyway. This time however, his Duel had been upgraded with an Assault Shroud. The Assault Shroud was developed by ZAFT to optimize the overall abilities of the GINN and CGUE command unit by equipping them with additional weapons, armor protection, and maneuvering thrusters.

Like the Strike, the Duel had additional hard-points on its exterior for mounting external equipment and weapons though they weren't compatible with Striker packs. Unfortunately the Assault Shroud had to be adapted to mount onto the Duel's hard-points, even the interfaces for the thrusters and weapons had to be modified so that they could be powered and controlled by the Duel's computer and fire-control system. It provided an additional layer of foam-metal armor, railgun mounted on its right shoulder and a 5-tube missile pod on the left, with additional thrusters mounted on a backpack and its legs to improve its mobility during Zero-G maneuvers.

Maneuvering through the point defense fire, Yzak fired his rocket propelled grenade into the bridge of his chosen battleship.

Nicol slipped past another's defenses under cloak taking care to avoid stray shots as his PS Armor didn't function while sheathed. Like Yzak he too attacked the bridge directly using his Gleipir anchor claw, to converse energy.

Of the three of them, Dearka had an easier time eliminating his targets. The Buster's ability to reconfigure its weapons between a long-range sniper rifle and an anti-armor shotgun gave him more versatility as to how he engaged his target, wither by snipping the bridge from afar or by attacking its flank with the shotgun reducing it to Swiss cheese, sometimes the spread of the shot would envelop multiple ships.

"You'd think with this many, this would be harder." Dearka quipped.

"They're too close together," Nicol pointed out. "The risk of friendly fire is too high. Looks like we caught them flatfooted; they haven't had time to coordinate their defense like last time."

Indeed, even the mobile armors were firing conservatively even as the GINNs they pursued weaved between ships firing with impunity without risk hitting their allies.

With that observation the three of them delved deeper into the fleet's formation, a number of mobile armors attempted to intercept them. Yzak made short work of them with his shoulder mounted railgun and missile pod, while Dearka shot down a solve of missiles with a blast from his shotgun as they pushed towards the rear of the fleet where the legged ship was last spotted, taking out an battleships they encountered along the way.

* * *

Back on the Archangel, the crew could only watch as the enemy tore through the fleet, situated in the back of the fleet there was little they could do to aid their stricken comrades.

"Come on! Isn't there anything we can do?" Ensign Arnold Neumann, the ship's pilot, complained in frustration.

"The enemy is too deep inside our formation. With so many allies in the battle space, if we fired into that melee we risk hitting our own allies. It's not just us though; the entire fleet is pulling its punches for fear of friendly fire." Natarle pointed out.

"Ironic that our greatest strength is also our biggest weakness. Too few of us and we overwhelmed, too many and we get in each other's way." Murrue quipped. "To be fair those ships were designed to chase smugglers and pirates, not combat mobile suits and warships. They're not so much warships as they are heavily-armed patrol boats."

"Back when there was no one to fight." Neumann noted.

"The Archangel was developed to address that issue." Natarle reminded them.

"Which makes our mission all the more important." Murrue agreed. Suddenly an alarm sounded.

"Enemy ship detected on our flank, it's the Nazca!" One of the crewmen in the CIC alerted them. "Five mobile suits launched, Aegis and four GINNs; two high mobility and two reconnaissance types." They had encountered these two types of GINN in the debris belt not too long ago.

"Be mindful of the recon types' ECM and ECCM capabilities, they'll try to spoof our missiles while acting as spotters for the Nazca." Natarle warned.

No sooner had she said that, one of the battleships guarding the fleets flank was hit by two devastating hammer blows by the Nazca's two beam cannons opening a hole in the fleet's defensive formation for the Aegis and the mobility types to infiltrate the formation.

Suddenly, Murrue's intercom chimed, it was La Flaga. "Captain, why haven't we sortied yet?"

"We've received no orders firm the Admiral; we are to remain on standby." She answered; she didn't like it anymore than he did.

"Look, I know that there's not much we can do," he said, acknowledging that unlike last time the fleet was too damn big for two mobile units to defend. "But still, I'd like to take the heat off our pilots so they can defend the fleet. We've got more experience dealing with _those_ guys."

Murrue found herself agreeing with him. Assessing the situation, Murrue quickly came to a decision and contacted Admiral Halberton.

"What is it?" He demanded sounding distracted, no doubt preoccupied with coordinating the fleet's defense.

"Admiral, it's becoming clear that at this rate we'll lose the fleet. I recommend that we withdraw and descend to Earth now." She told him.

"You want to abandon the fleet in the middle of a battle!?" Halberton demanded angrily.

"With all due respect Admiral, our presence is the reason they're attacking at all. If we withdraw now there will be little reason for ZAFT to continue this assault." Murrue reasoned.

Halberton grimaced.

"Admiral," Mu interjected. "If we wait too long there won't be enough of the fleet to cover us during atmospheric reentry without being shot down. We would have to retreat to Luna and they'll have us pinned on the moon, it'll be Endymion all over again."

There was another pause as Halberton deliberated. Another ship exploded. "Very well," he said finally. "We'll withdraw. Captain Ramius begin preparations for reentry; I'll inform Captain Hoffman of our intentions and transfer command of the fleet to him."

"Understood." Murrue acknowledged.

"Admiral, I would like for me and Setsuna to deploy and take some of the heat off of the fleet, so they form a defensive line." Mu suggested.

"Both you, _and_ the Strike?" He inquired sternly.

Mu must have sensed Halberton's reluctance. "There's not much my Zero can do against _those_ four," he added referring to the stolen G-Weapons. Their PS Armor protected them from roughly 80% of the fleet's arsenal of weapons, and only the battleships in addition to the flagship and the Archangel were outfitted with beam cannons. "And they're doing the bulk of the damage."

"Very well," Halberton relented. "You're authorized to sortie. But let me be clear, the Strike must be back onboard the Archangel before the final phase of reentry. If it's not with us when we reach Alaska then all our efforts would be rendered mute."

"Understood Admiral," Mu agreed. "I'll relay that."

* * *

In the Archangel's hangar, the launch crews were scrambling to move both the Zero and the Strike to the catapults.

As the Strike was positioned on the catapult, Setsuna was contacted by Chief Engineer Murdoch who gave him a rundown of the Strike's newest weapon system transferred to the Archangel by the 8th fleet.

"You won't be using individual Striker packs anymore, they're being held in reserve for the Sky Graspers. Instead you'll be using the Multiple Assault Striker pack from now on." Murdoch explained. "It combines all the features of the other three into one weapon system. It also comes with an extended power pack to handle the extra power draw, but that's no excuse to go crazy with it you hear me?"

"Loud and clear." Setsuna answered. When the connection cut, Setsuna assessed his new weapons load-out.

On the left arm and should, the beam boomerang, and the shield and claw combo from the Sword Striker were mounted. On the right should the Vulcan gun and missile pod combo was mounted, and the Beam Rifle was held in the right hand. The biggest change however, was the backpack; built around the Aile Striker's flight pack, in addition to its two beam sabers, it had been expanded to mound both the Launcher Striker's Agni Beam Cannon on the left, and the Sword Striker's Anti-ship Sword on the right.

When the backpack was mounted Setsuna saw that – true to Murdoch's word – the Strike registered not one, but four auxiliary batteries. He could see what the Earth Forces were hoping to accomplish with this setup, but couldn't help but wonder if they were being overambitious.

With status indicators all green, the new Perfect Strike launched from the catapult followed by Mu's Zero.

What they saw was the fleet in complete disarray. GINNs zoomed here and there throughout the formation, dog fighting with Moebius squadrons, escort ships maneuvering desperately to provide clear firing lanes for the battleships' weapons to engage only for them to be taken out by the four stolen prototypes.

Of the four, the Duel and the Buster were the closest, aggressively pushing deeper into the fleet's formation towards the Archangel. The Blitz and the Aegis however, were more intent on taking out the battleships.

"This is nuts." Mu commented, "What's the game plan this time Setsuna? You're the only one equipped to take these guys out." He had a point, Mu's weapons load out meant that all he could hope to do was impede their advance delaying them.

"Suppress the Buster," Setsuna told him. "Don't let it get close enough to target the Archangel with its heavy weapons."

"Got it." Mu acknowledged before breaking off and accelerating towards his assigned target, leaving Setsuna to engage the Duel.

[Warning; Missile Lock!]

An oncoming missile swarm of five missiles closed in on the Strike. Setsuna engaged them with the combined fire of his CIWS and Vulcan gun. Tracing the point of origin back to the Duel…? Setsuna magnified the its image and saw to his surprise that – like his Strike – the Duel had its weapon system optimized with additional arms and armor. The shoulder mounted railgun however, didn't match the one listed as additional equipment on the Archangel's database.

He retaliated with a pair of his own missiles from his shoulder launcher; likewise the Duel shot them down with its own CIWS. The two exchanged fire while blocking with their shields. Fire from the Duel's railgun added to the mix, Setsuna responded in kind with his Vulcan gun, damage was either of them was negligible thanks to their PS Armor only their external equipment was at risk though, the force of the impacts combined with the low gravity made maneuvering and targeting arduous.

Some distance away Mu was doing his part keeping the Buster preoccupied.

Exchanging its rifle for its beam saber, the Duel slashed at Setsuna, as he parried with his arm shield before counting with a kick to the Duel's torso. Setsuna also switched to a beam saber and the two engaged in flurry of blows.

The flash of an explosion caught Setsuna's attention; he turned to see that a ZAFT ship had collided with the Flagship Menelaos, the resulting explosion sent both ships plunging into the atmosphere. That's when he saw the retreat signal on his monitor; he had been so preoccupied fending off the Duel he hadn't noticed.

Breaking away from the Duel, he accelerated away to rejoin the Archangel. Orientating himself to the ship, he saw that Mu had already returned safely.

As he closed with the Archangel, a sudden impact sent him tumbling away.

* * *

The bridge crew could only watch in horror as the Strike, moments away from returning, was tackled off course by the Duel sending the pair tumbling through the atmosphere.

"What do we do, Captain?"

"After them, Neumann!" Murrue ordered, "no matter what, we can't lose the Strike!"

"Aye, Captain!"

"Come on, Lieutenant. Shake him off." She muttered as the Archangel closed with the two suits still tumbling, as they continued to struggle.

Suddenly, the Duel was thrown clear. "Neumann!"

"Aye, Captain!" He didn't need to be told as he maneuvered the Archangel under the Strike, there was a slight *thunk!* when it made contact on the Archangel. Natarle confirmed that the Strike had being retrieved and secured.

"Neumann…?" Murrue inquired.

"We can't get back on course to Alaska at this trajectory, or allied territory for that matter." He answered.

Murrue sighed. "Can't be helped. Take us down as best you can."

"Aye, Captain."

* * *

Andrew Waltfeld, commander of ZAFT's ground forces stationed in Africa, entered the communications center with an exasperated sigh. Inside were DaCosta and Aisha along with a number of communication techs.

"What do we have?" He inquired.

"Radar picked up several objects descending through the atmosphere." DaCosta reported. "Gibraltar confirms that there aren't any scheduled orbital supply drops. They're dispatching recon teams to their likely impact locations."

Waltfeld smiled ruefully. "Huh."

"What is it?" Aisha asked.

"I just got off the horn with Rau Le Creuset of all people." He answered. "He recently fought a large scale engagement with the 8th fleet. Lost one ship and a few suits."

Aisha frowned. "Did the Council approve that military action?" In spite of their technological advantage, ZAFT was short on both soldiers and resources; they couldn't afford to casually throw away ships and their crews in pointless engagements.

"Knowing that asshole, I doubt it. He was always the type to beg forgiveness, rather than ask permission. I'm sure the National Defense Committee will put a positive spin on it, while privately raking him over the coals." He told them, "apparently the 8th fleet was escorting their new prototype mobile weapon to Earth, and Le Creuset attempted an intercept. They entered the atmosphere successfully but weren't able to reach their intended destination, according to him they should have landed close to us."

"The radar contacts earlier." DaCosta concluded.

Waltfeld nodded. "Prep five BuCUEs and a squadron of VTOLs, we're going hunting. If we're lucky we'll catch 'em flatfooted. Aisha, I'm leaving you in command of the base."

"Understood. I'll keep the coffee brewing." She quipped.

* * *

 **End of chapter 8.**

* * *

 **Sorry for the long wait and thank you for your patience, this chapter was a pain to write. I've tried to surmise the reason as to why the Earth Forces' fleet is so ineffective in spite of their sheer numbers and tried to reason it out in the early portions of this chapter, so, sorry if it felt like an info dump, also the statements regarding these reasons is purely conjecture on my part as there may or may not have been an opposing force that justified its existence, you won't find anything on the Gundam Wiki that would confirm or deny what I've written, it's just my best guess based on limited information.**

 **As some of you may have guessed we have reached the point where Setsuna's alias could no longer hold water so to speak. Originally Halberton was supposed to confront Setsuna about his identity and confine him for a time before releasing to fight ZAFT, however, the words refused to come to me and instead out of reluctant frustration I had the attack interrupt Halberton just as he was getting to the issue.**

 **Those familiar with the Astray series will know about the Railgun Bazooka used by Gold Frame, which had originally being intended for the Duel. This is the additional equipment that Setsuna was referring to when he was analyzing the Duel's Assault Shroud.**


	9. Kira's New Job - Phase 14

**Exia Displaced Ch 9  
**

 **Bonus Side Story: Kira's new job – Phase 14.**

* * *

At Morgenroete HQ, Kira met his new boss; Erica Simmons was the senior engineer of Mobile Suit Research and Development as well as an integral member of the Astray Project.

"So you're our new Program Analysis." She said looking Kira over before turning back to examining his dossier. In her early thirties, she had chin length brown hair and hazel eyes. "It says you stumbled across our side project with the Federation at Heliopolis."

"Yes that's me." He said nervously. "Cagalli said that they were the Earth Forces new mobile weapons."

Erica arched an eyebrow at him. "Cagalli?"

Kira flinched, had he said something he shouldn't have. "She was with me when we were searching for a lifeboat; we stumbled across them in the factory area." He explained. Strangely enough her expression seemed more amused than reproachful.

 _'_ _Poor boy has no idea who he's been talking to all this time.'_ Erica thought ruefully. ' _Knowing that girl, she probably prefers it that way. Oh well...'_

"Anyway." She started, "follow me and I'll introduce you to the test pilots you'll be working with."

She led him to one of the briefing rooms. Upon entering, Kira was surprised to see three (cute) girls close to his age. "Kira, these three are; Asagi Kodoueru the team leader, Mayura Lapats, and Julie Nien. Girls this Kira Yamato, our new Program Analysis."

"""A cute boy?!""" The three of them quickly crowded around him. Kira felt a little overwhelmed.

Asagi had chin length blonde hair and blue eyes. Mayura had ear length red hair and blue eyes. Julie had dark blue hair, amber eyes and wore glasses with pink frames. They were each about 16 years old.

' _Adolescent girls…'_ Erica sighed. "That's enough you three; you're here to work, not to flirt. No funny business, you hear me."

"""Yes, ma'am!""" The three acknowledged.

"Well, It goes without saying that the three of them are Naturals, it'll be pointless otherwise, they will be testing the OS you'll be helping us develop, and provide feedback." Erica told him. "Our Coordinator pilots are currently calibrating their machines and practicing maneuvers under Lady Mina's supervision. Unless we succeed in developing a Natural Use MOS, they'll make up the bulk of Orb's Mobile Suit Division."

Seeing Kira put off, Erica placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder and said. "Sorry, I don't mean to put pressure on you. It just…"

"Important." Kira finished.

"Yes. I'm afraid so." Erica sighed ruefully. "With your help, I'm hoping to improve our chances."

* * *

Since then, Kira and the girls became fast friends over the course of their work on the Astrays, whether it is the team lead Asagi, the tomboyish Mayura, or the tech savvy Julie.

Naturally he had introduced the three girls to his friends Sai, Kuzzey, Tolle and Miriallia, who had all been transferred to the local Morgenroete technical college, except of course for Flay who had returned to the Atlantic Federation, the status of her engagement with Sai was unknown at this point.

The eight of them had met for lunch at a local café. After ordering, they chattered while they waited.

"So, what is it that you three do at Morgenroete?" Kuzzey asked the girls.

"We stress test prototype technology for R&D..." Asagi answered.

"However, the control software can be a little buggy..." Julie added.

"This was why we needed a program analyst to optimize the software." Mayura finished.

Naturally a lot of the specifics were left unspoken as they couldn't talk about the Astray Project with his friends as they weren't involved with the project themselves.

"I see." Sai said, "I imagine that such a position would be rather lucrative."

"I'll say." Tolle quipped. "So, you four run into each other often at work?"

"Part of the optimization process requires feedback from us on how certain components perform while interacting with other components, and resolving any software errors we encounter. At times Kira himself would physically inspect the component when it is too large to move to his workstation." Julie answer, "Given how frequently we are stress testing, then yes, we see Kira a lot around the facility."

"Oh, Kira gets regular visits from three girls."

"Or he goes looking for them. What a player."

Tolle and Miriallia mercilessly teased him about his new _liaisons_.

"Shut up! Unlike you, I have to work with them after this." Kira complained.

* * *

"How's progress on replacing the Natural use MOS?" Mina asked. She had called Erica from the satellite platform Ame-no-Mihashira in geosynchronous orbit above Orb.

"Kira has been a great help, we're making steady progress." Erica told her. "The only way this could go faster is if we had a look at the original MOS installed on Red Frame. But with Gina gunning for them, I doubt we'll have an opportunity to analyze it."

"I see. Well, you're in luck. My brother had to divert his attention elsewhere for the immediate future." Mina informed her.

"Another one of his black ops?" Erica asked.

"Do you really want to know?"

"No." She denied. Understanding the necessity, didn't mean she agreed with his tactics.

"Regardless, a window of opportunity has opened. Make the most of it." Mina cut the connection.

Erica made a call. "Julie, would come to my office, I have a special task for you."

* * *

 **Exia Astray 3; The Spy That Stole My Ride**

* * *

After the Liteiria colony conversion, Lowe and the crew had stopped by the PLANTs after salvaging an experimental GINN, while they were there they thwarted an attack on the PLANTs by a Blue Cosmos fleet. However, because Red Frame's participation was unauthorized they were evicted from the PLANT's airspace.

* * *

 **Marlin's 1st day.**

At the civilian space satellite _Barnacle_ , the _H.O.M.E._ had docked for much needed maintenance.

Like most large satellites in Earth's orbit, the majority of them were converted asteroid mines made from hollowed out asteroids. Others included the likes of Actecon Industries Development Facility satellite, and Eurasia's Artemis Space Fortress.

Oddly enough maintenance was the last thing on a certain Junk Tech's mind.

"You idiot!" Lowe yelled.

[You're the idiot!] 8 retorted.

"That armor slows me down!" Lowe argued back, "And I'm not an idiot!"

Stepping into the hangar, Liam asked. "Are they arguing again?"

"Yup." Kisato confirmed, "They've been at it for a while."

"He's been working on upgrading Red Frame and slacking on maintenance." She complained to Liam.

Liam grimaced. "He knows the ship's here for a maintenance overhaul."

"Uh…" Came a voice from behind him.

He glanced back the way he came. "Oh, excuse me!" He said, "The Guild sent us an intern." He told Kisato.

"Oh really?" She asked excited at the prospect of extra help given that a _certain_ somebody constantly found excuses to be preoccupied.

Liam motioned for the intern to enter. "Let me introduce her-" He started, however, the person in question cut him off pushing past.

"Yuppers! The Guild sent me here to learn the ropes! I'll be here for a whole week." The girl said. She wore trousers, a black long sleeved shirt and short sleeved jacket with the Junk Guild emblem on both shoulders left open at the front to reveal a surprisingly tantalizing bust. Her chin length black hair was tied back and a pair of goggles rested on her forehead.

"My name is Marlin!" She introduced herself, "thanks for having me!"

"Wow! A girl!" Kisato exclaimed ecstatic to have another girl on board. "How are you-?!"She offered to shake the new girl's hand only to stumble when Marlin bypassed Kisato, her attention fixated on what was behind her in the hangar.

"Ohmigod! You have a mobile suit!" Marlin exclaimed referring to both Liam's GINN, and Lowe's Red Frame. Behind Marlin, Liam tried to console a despondent Kisato.

"You're the intern? Nice to meet ya! I'm Lowe. This is 8." Lowe introduced himself while holding up 8 with [Hello!] displayed across its screen. "I expect you to work hard!"

 _'_ _He's Lowe Gear! What a cutie!'_ Was her initial reaction to meeting him. "Of course! No problem!?"

"I'll give you some instructions." He said turning away oblivious to her reaction.

"Already? But I just got here." Marlin muttered in disbelief.

"Yes," Lowe answered. "First, I want you to look over these parts." He told her referring to a loose assortment of salvage floating about in the hangar's micro gravity. "Enter the data for the performance tests into 8. Then there's tons more to do when you're done."

As Lowe gave out her instructions, Marlin looked up at Red Frame with a peculiar expression. _'This is my target! Prototype MBF-P02!'_ Suddenly a large object banged into her head.

"Be careful!" Lowe warned her. "We've got all kinds of parts floating around here."

"Got it…" She groaned rubbing her head. _'What the hell…'_

"Being a Junk Tech is so not my style…" She muttered until she got a good look at what had hit her. "What?!" _'Prototype 01's arm?! From the Gold Frame!'_ She realized. "What is this doing here?!"

"Huh? Say something?" Lowe asked.

"Oh, nothing." She replied before asking. "Um… Where did you get this?"

"Duh, I found it." Lowe answered. "At Heliopolis."

Suddenly Marlin grabbed him by the lapels. "What about the body? Do you have any other parts?" She demanded.

"I only found the right arm." He told her. "I think the rest got buried inside Heliopolis."

Marlin let go of his jacket. "Oh really? What a waste, it's so pretty. Tee-hee!" She said trying to cover for her outburst, which surprisingly Lowe seemed to accept. Brilliant engineer that he was, he can be dense when it came to people, particularly girls as Kisato could attest.

"She's a bit strange…" Liam noted.

"She's annoying." Kisato griped.

* * *

 **Marlin's 2nd day.**

Having spent the previous day doing performance tests on salvaged equipment and uploading the results into the portable terminal '8' Marlin went about stowing away all the parts floating about the ship's hold for safe transport.

All the while keeping tabs on Lowe in the hangar as he continued to squabble with his computer regarding modifications to Red Frame.

As she went about her business of squaring everything away. She noticed that in one of the docking cradles the silhouette of a mobile suit covered by a tarp.

"Um…Lowe." She called out. "What about this one?"

Lowe glanced at the tarp she pointed to. "That's the Professor's private project, a little mystery we dug up from Heliopolis." He explained, "It's different from the Red Frame we found."

 _'_ _Could it be one of those five?'_ She wondered racalling the Omni Enforcer's G Project.

"Pity it isn't functional," he continued. "The more she tells me about it, the more it sounds like a sweet ride."

"Better than Red Frame?" She asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Well that's hard to say-" He started to say until the Professor whacked him over the head with 8's terminal interrupting him.

"I think you've said enough," The Professor rebuked him. "We have enough trouble with thieves trying to steal Red Frame. The last thing we need is for them to try for this thing, if you want to tell her about it wait until we've left dock, which won't happen until the maintenance overhaul is completed."

With a swift kick to Lowe's rear, she booted him towards Red Frame. "Which would go a lot faster if you got out there and helped? Marlin, come with me to the bridge and help me coordinate the station crew with ours.

"Ah, right!" Marlin hurried after the Professor. She spent the next two helping her coordinating the two groups.

* * *

 **Marlin's 5th day.**

"These docking fees are way over budget." Liam grimaced having tallied the total cost of the _H.O.M.E's_ overhaul. "If you hadn't spend so much time tinkering with Red Frame, Lowe…"

"Ha! A GINN or two will easily make up for the Cost." Lowe said dismissively.

"That's not the point," Kisato rebuked. "We could've been finished sooner if you came out and helped us."

"Hey! Those upgrades are essential to protecting us from thieves." Lowe groused.

"This wouldn't be a problem if you sold the damn thing!" Kisato countered.

"That's enough you two." The Professor intervened. "For today we will focus our efforts on _my_ personal project."

"But I was going to continue work on Red Frame." Lowe complained.

"Too bad. It's on the backburner for now. Who knows, I might've allowed it if you hadn't spent most of our maintenance schedule screwing around."

With the maintenance complete, the _H.O.M.E._ detached from Barnacle Station, and Marlin finally got to see the mysterious mobile suit under the tarp.

When it was finally unveiled, it wasn't quite what she expected. Its design was considerably different from your typical mobile suit, armor was minimal, and its limbs were clearly designed for a wider range of motion compared to that of the GINN or Red Frame. Most notable of all was the hole melted through its chest.

 _'_ _This was at Heliopolis…?'_ Marlin wondered. "What happened to it?"

"We're not entirely certain." Liam answered her. "Analysis of the damage is indicative of an energy weapon akin to Red Frame's beam saber."

"So, what are we doing with this suit?" Marlin asked curiously.

"This mobile suit is outfitted with a number of exotic technologies," The Professor explained. "However, we don't understand how they work exactly, so we're going to power up the suit in the hope that we can glen some insight from its computer.

Unfortunately the suits power plant is tied into those very same technologies which had been critically damaged before it was abandoned. Fortunately the computer runs off electricity so I'm having Lowe patch in one of the ultracompact batteries from a GINN into the suits power grid so we can start it up."

"All hooked up!" Lowe called out.

"Start her up, Liam." The Professor instructed.

"Initiating startup." Liam confirmed. Inside the cockpit he booted up the system. It had taken some time to identify the switches inside the cockpit comparing them to the console layout of other mobile suits they had onboard, even so, some of the functions were still a mystery.

[IIOS] The display read. [Individual Information Attestation System Start Up.]

Suddenly a scanner mounted to the ceiling of the cockpit scanned Liam's eyes.

[Alert! Invalid ID, ceasing start up!]

And just like that the mobile suit went dark.

"What happened, Liam?" the Professor asked.

"Security system." He answered as he clambered out of the cockpit.

"What type?"

"Biometrics, retina scan."

"Crap!" She swore. "Whoever built this really didn't want others messing with their stuff. I guess this is as far as we go."

"That's it?! We're not going to try anything else? What about overwriting the MOS?" Marlin suggested.

"It's possible," Liam agreed. "But without knowing how the hardware interacts with the software, best case scenario; nothing works-"

"Worst case scenario; the software glitches out, and the hardware fries itself." The Professor added. "The same applies to a physical tear down of the unit. If we compromise the suits integrity and fail to learn anything, there are no do-overs, and I've no idea who builds stuff like this. I don't even think the Coordinators on the PLANTs are working on this, what with the war and all. Unfortunately the _H.O.M.E._ is a salvage ship, not a science vessel; we're not equipped to perform in depth analysis."

The Professor sighed in disappointment. "Sorry guys, but I'm afraid we're going to have to take a chance and outsource some help."

"Surely we're not going to those Actecon Industries assholes." Lowe groused.

"Of course not." The Professor dismissing the possibility. "After attempting to steal Red Frame from us we can't trust them not to escalate the situation should they learn about this unit. Personally, I'm leaning toward Morgenroete, or DSSD."

And just like that, Marlin's introduction to the mystery mobile suit came to an end.

* * *

 **Marlin's last day.**

"So how's the intern?" The Professor asked.

"She's kind of clumsy." Lowe answered. "She knows her shit though. She's no amateur."

"Do you think she worked for Actecon or Morgenroete?" Kisato wondered.

"If that were the case, she would _not_ be a Junk Tech intern." Liam pointed out.

"Maybe she's got a really good reason." The Professor interjected before asking. "What's she doing right now?"

"She's pulling maintenance on Red Frame." Liam answered perplexed.

"Do you _really_ think that's a bright idea?" The Professor asked them.

"Sure! I left 8 with her." Lowe answered misinterpreting her meaning. "He'll help her out."

"Oh, I don't think she needs much help." The Professor said in a peculiar tone.

A dubious feeling came over Kisato. "Wait a sec-"

Suddenly there was a shudder throughout the ship followed by an alarm. "What the hell?" Lowe wondered.

"See…" The Professor said casually taking a sip from her water bottle. "Red Frame just broke through the cargo bay."

"That little brat!" Lowe shouted in outrage,

 _'_ _Brilliant each of them is in their own way, and yet they can be as dumb as bricks. Ah the human condition.'_ The Professor thought with a sigh.

* * *

Meanwhile, outside the ship, Marlin zoomed away in her stolen Red Frame.

[You thief!] 8's blared accusingly.

"You're a noisy little machine." Marlin complained as she worked the controls. "Stop bugging me!"

[Return to the ship! Now!]

"Whoa! Damn!" Marlin had to readjust her flight path a couple of times. "Just like ridin' a bicycle!"

Eventually she corrected her course. Her objective was to meet up with an unmarked transport. "All right, I'm getting the hang of this, and I'm a Natural! They put a lot of work into this OS." She remarked as she perused the data stored in Red Frame.

[You can't operate this safely! Go back!]

She intended to steal it earlier today, but, she curious about the mysterious mobile suit under the tarp.

"The Gerbera Straight? Very Interesting." She said, however the accompanying data threw her for a loop. "What the hell _is_ this data?"

"Stop!" Demanded a familiar voice over the radio. Marlin looked behind her and saw a Chimera pursuing her. She recognized it as one used by the Junk Guild. "Listen, girlie, that's my ride – and I don't like to share!" Lowe declared as he closed the distance.

"No!" Marlin denied. "The P02 was originally ours."

"What are you takin' about?!" Lowe demanded.

"I'm taking it back!" She declared.

"I don't think so!" Lowe lunged at her with the Chimera's drill.

"What?!" She barely fended him off with Red Frame's shield, though the impact still knocked her about. "Damn brute!"

Lowe cringed. "You better learn some evasive maneuvers! I really don't wanna damage my machine!" It's not like he could find replacement parts as if were a common GINN.

[WARNING. MS approaching!] 8 announced to both of them.

"What now?!" Marlin demanded in frustration, none of this was turning out as she planned.

"A mobile suit?" Lowe wondered as they both faced the intruder. As it got closer, Lowe made out a familiar silhouette. "A GINN?"

That's when the approaching GINN fired on Red Frame.

Marlin brought up her shield in the nick of time. "Aaaagghh!"

"Duck dammit!" Lowe told her.

Marlin ignored him. "Cocky bastard! I'm just getting warmed up. Time to bust out this baby's best toys."

She took aim at the GINN. "Gotta love the beam rifle!" And fired. However, the GINN nimbly dodged it.

"What?!" Marlin exclaimed. "That maneuver worked during simulations!"

The GINN quickly closed and batted her rifle away. "Look, I'm just here for the mobile suit." The GINN broadcasted. "Pilot, you will be exterminated." And took aim at Red Frame's cockpit.

"Over my dead body!" Lowe tackled the GINN with his Chimera restraining the GINN with his Chimera's arms. "How many times do I have to say it? Red Frame is MINE!"

"Marlin! Quick! Plug 8 into the cockpit!" Lowe shouted.

"What? Why?"

"Just do it!"

"O-okay."

[Connect to G.U.N.D.A.M OS]

"Let's do it, 8."

[Roger!]

"What the-?!" Marlin started as 9 suddenly popped the hatch, air venting out into the vacuum. "OHMIGOD!"

At the same time Lowe popped the hatch of his Chimera and launched himself from it to Red Frame. As soon as Lowe was inside Red Frame, the hatch quickly snapped shut with Lowe now sitting on her lap, took the controls.

"What on Earth…" Marlin couldn't believe he'd actually done that, most ridiculous of all, he wasn't even wearing a space suit. _'This guy is nuts!'_

The GINN freed itself tearing off the Chimera's arms in the process.

"Hey, you halfwit! That's expensive!" Lowe shouted at the GINN. "I modified that Chimera myself you prick!"

"Ask me if I care Junkie!" The GINN retorted.

Lowe drew the Gerbera Straight. "It slices, it dices!" And sliced off the GINN's right arm holding its rifle.

 _'_ _That sword… is that a heat shotel?'_ Marlin wondered. Heat shotels were superheated physical blades allowing them to melt through armor at high speed; they were essentially a stopgap between conventional blades and beam sabers. But that wasn't all. Despite the simple design of its arms, Red Frame had surprising dexterity. _'How can he move like that?'_

Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted when Lowe's elbow drove into her chest.

"Yeooowch!" She cried out.

"Hey! What's with all the racket?!" Lowe demanded.

"You're squashing my boobs! Get out, Lowe! This isn't exactly a bicycle for two!" The pair began bickering as they struggled within the cramped cockpit causing Red Frame to comically flail about.

"Forget it, Marlin! This machine's too sophisticated for you!"

"I almost had it all figured out! Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Just sit back and shut up!"

Drawing its heavy sword with its remaining arm, the GINN came charging back at them, "Sorry to wake you from naptime, but this fight ain't over yet kiddies! This is what you get for fighting a mercenary!"

The GINN lashed out with its sword. "Here's your ticket to the other side!" One could imagine his surprise when Lowe casually blocked his sword with Red Frame's shield before delivering a swift kick to the GINN's torso.

"I've fought _real_ mercenaries! You're second rate at best!" Lowe declared. "Serpent's Tail would kick your ass all the way into tomorrow."

"S-Serpent's… Tail?" The mercenary uttered in surprise.

"You wouldn't survive a real fight."

"Let me take him out!" Marlin suddenly reached passed Lowe.

"What?"

"8, route power top the sword and-" Marlin began.

"Stop it! That isn't a beam saber, you idiot!" Lowe interrupted. "8! Drop the sword!"

[Disengaging Gerbera Straight!]

Red Frame released the sword; however, electricity arced from the power connector in its palm.

"Shit!" Lowe swore. "Power overlord!"

If he didn't discharge it soon, Red Frame's electrical system would fry. Acting on impulse, he discharged it into the only viable alternative; the opposing GINN.

Lowe shoved the electric sphere into the GINN's main camera, shorting it out.

"Damn! My sensor's dead!" The mercenary turned tail and zoomed away. "Until next time…"

Lowe watched him go. "Finally… So, 8… What just happened?"

[The power intended for the beam saber was routed to the arm and was discharged through the armor… The result; a new special attack!]

Lowe burst out laughing. "A new special attack?! That's brilliant 8!"

[Hee hee hee]

* * *

On the bridge of the H.O.M.E. Lowe and the crew watched as the ship carrying Marlin accelerated away.

"There she goes…" Kisato said.

"She had quite some nerve, that girl…" Liam groused.

"I don't think she was sent by a mercenary…" Lowe concluded. "I guess letting her go is our good deed for the week."

"She will certainly be expelled from the Junk Guild." Liam pointed out.

"I bet she's regretting what she did." Kisato commented.

"You think so?" the Professor asked with a hint of amusement from the Captain's chair. "Maybe, just maybe… she _completed_ her mission?"

"""Huh?"""

* * *

Meanwhile, on the transport.

"And that's my final analysis. After analyzing the Astray OS, a Natural should _definitely_ be able to operate it." Marlin reported. "By the way, I saw something most interesting on the ship. The Professor was talking about possibly outsourcing to us or DSSD for analysis."

The person she spoke to was none other than Erica Simmons. "Oh, and what is this something interesting?"

"A mobile suit like no other." She answered.

"Nicely done. Return to base… Julie."

"Roger! Right away." She ended the video call. "No need for this disguise anymore." She muttered out loud as she undid her hair tie. "I just don't like contact lenses."

Wearing familiar pink framed glasses revealed her to be none other than Julie Nien.

* * *

 **Considering the difficulty of writing the previous chapter, I think I'm being given the less-than-subtle hint to work on something else and come back to this fresh. Therefore I will be working on my other story which has been waiting over a year for an update and is close to completion, I'll finish it off and then come back to this story.**

 **As usual check my profile every now and then for status updates.**


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